OSHA Enforcement: Reporters Report While OSHA Mostly Hides

Here we are, at the end of July, and OSHA continues to hide the fact that it actually enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act. OSHA has issued two (2) enforcement-related press releases this month, out of probably 50 cases that exceeded $40,000. In the first three weeks of July there were 13 cases above $70,000, the press release threshold during the Bush administration, and 7 cases over $100,000 during that time. But aside from two isolated press releases, who would know?

Since January 20, out of 536 cases exceeding $40,000, OSHA has issued only 9 press releases.

For some reason, this administration, unlike all of those that preceded it, seems a bit embarrassed that the world might find out that it is a law enforcement agency. Since January 20, out of 536 cases exceeding $40,000, OSHA has issued only 9 press releases. I’m hoping that Loren Sweatt, OSHA’s new political Deputy Assistant Secretary (the acting head of the agency) will have the courage to re-instate press releases, recognizing that press releases are not primarily about embarrassing employers; they are about making sure that employers and workers know that there is a law that requires employers to provide a safe workplace, and that OSHA inspectors are out there inspecting workplaces and enforcing the law.

And if press releases do cause some embarrassment for employers who are violating the law and endangering (or hurting) workers, is that a bad thing? If it generates some competition among employers for better health and safety conditions, isn’t that a good thing? Republicans are supposed to believe in competition. Why not competition for better working conditions?

Both employers and workers pay the price for OSHA’s failure to issue press releases. Check out the tables below for cases where a press release might have served some educational function. For example, I just wrote about a close call where three workers narrowly escaped asphyxiation when cleaning rail cars. Maybe other rail car companies — and the workers cleaning the tank cars, especially those in Nebraska —  would have benefited from hearing about a $$204,611 penalty against Titan Railcar Services for various safety and health violations, including a $126,749 violation for confined space hazards. But no press release.

And wouldn’t other metal finishing companies — and workers in those companies, especially in Massachusetts, be interested in what kind of safety and health violations were found at Apmar USA which received a $207,000 citation for lockout, electrical and machine guarding violations? And what was going on at Carthage Specialty Paperboard, Inc. in Carthage, NY, which received several dozen serious citations with penalties totaling $262,381.  Well, unless someone bothers to request the case file, no one may ever know what was going on there.

And on and on.

Recent Enforcement Cases in the News

Despite OSHA’s intransigence, as you can see below, a few enterprising reporters have managed to get the enforcement information despite the lack of press releases. But not enough.

Maumee Assembly & Stamping LLC , in Maumee, Ohio, has been fined 211,857 by OSHA for 10 workplace safety violations this year, two of which led to employee injuries. Nine of the violations against were labeled “serious” but the most recent one was labeled “willful.” According to OSHA, the first injury occurred in January when an employee sustained a severe ankle injury when metal blanks shifted and slid off a table because of unstable stacking. The second occurred in March when an employee’s thumb was crushed in between a shaker table and the die, OSHA said. The violations cited included hazards created by improper stacking or storage of parts that could shift and fall and hurt employees working nearby, failure to protect employees from injury on machines, failure to have a program of regular inspections of equipment, and failure to train workers on safe machine operations.

The Winnebago plant in Middlebury, Indiana was fined $10,000 by Indiana OSHA in the wake of a worker death there in April. The IOSHA citation address a forklift for speeding, saying it was “not operated at a speed that would permit it to be brought to a stop in a safe manner.”

Anaplex Corp. in Paramount, California and  Aerocraft Heat Treating received citations from CalOSHA/DOSH. Anaplex Corp. exposed employees to hazardous substances without adequate protection, including personal protective equipment and emergency eyewash, and DOSH seeks more than $78,000 in penalties in the case.  Aerocraft was fined more than $30,000.

CyOptics Inc in Macungie, Pennsylvania was issued a $28,067 fine because workers weren’t wearing proper safety gear during a February explosion that injured three employees. CyOptics is a subsidiary of Broadcom.

Aluminum Shapes of a Camden County, New Jersey has received 51 safety and health violations and proposed penalties of $1,922,895, according to an OSHA Press Release. Since 2011, the agency has inspected the facility eight times, cited the employer for 60 violations and assessed $516,753 in penalties. The citations followed the hospitalization of two employees following chemical burns and another incident where a machine operator suffered a broken pelvis after being caught between the unguarded moving parts of a metal fabrication machine.

Nicholas Smith and A&B Process Systems, where a 23-year-old Marshfield, Indiana man died last December will pay a $36,404 fine, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Smith died on Dec. 14, as he was welding lugs onto the outside of stainless steel tanks. Small metal bladders were placed on the inside surface of the tank where he was welding. The metal bladders held argon gas used to remove oxygen from the inside surfaces of the welding area. Officials believe Smith entered the tank to remove the metal bladders and died from a lack of oxygen, which was displaced by the argon gas, according to the report.

Skana Aluminum Co. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, received citations with penalties totaling $63,748 due to fall hazards, unapproved boom attachments used on forklifts and three pieces of equipment missing guards to prevent entanglement or flying chips.

Ceco Concrete Construction of West Palm Beach, Florida was issued a total of four serious violations totaling $50,700 in penalties, after a 27-year-old construction worker plummeted 15 stories to his death in downtown West Palm Beach last year

Large OSHA Enforcement Cases Through July 21, 2017

Large OSHA State Plan Enforcement Cases Through June 27, 2017