Close this Advertisement

OSHA Rings Up $4 Million Day

Announcing a $3 million fine against one employer and $1.2 million against another, the agency continues come down hard on violations even when no fatality is involved.

  • Sep 02, 2010

OSHA announced two more million-dollar-plus enforcement actions Wednesday, with an employer cited for $3 million for alleged violations at two Alabama manufacturing sites and a second Houston employer cited for $1.2 million for recordkeeping violations. Neither case involved a fatality, but alleged tampering with the safety systems on hydraulic forging presses at a Tuscumbia, Ala., plant by Whitesell Corp. resulted in the amputation of a worker’s hand, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in the agency’s news release about that case.

Whitesell Corp. makes engineered fasteners, cold-forged and -formed products, and wire forms for the automotive industry, as well as appliances, HVAC, building products, and other applications.

The Houston company with $1,215,000 in fines lodged against it is Goodman Manufacturing Co. LP, which makes air conditioners, heating systems, and indoor air quality products for residential and light commercial use. In this case, OSHA’s Houston North Area Office investigated and concluded Goodman had not properly recorded or failed to record 72 percent of employees’ injuries and illnesses from January 2008 to March 15, 2010, on its 300 log.

"OSHA takes these violations extremely seriously," said Assistant Secretary Dr. David Michaels. "OSHA needs accurate data to effectively target its inspections and resources, and to measure the impact of OSHA's actions on workplace safety. Employers and workers need to understand how important accurate data are to workplace safety and health."



Share this Page

Related Articles

Whitepapers

Comments

Mon, Sep 13, 2010 Ron

Benjy,a safety professional is a person who by experience or training attempts to mitigate risk in occupational safety. Usually they are given limited resources and support and are single handedly expected to completely change the safety culture to conform to some preconcieved irrelevent level in a ridiculously short period of time while not offending anyone or interfering with production goals in any way.They also usually get the environmental side of things as well because nobody wants to touch that either. But I may just be pessimistic.

Sat, Sep 11, 2010

It is incredible to review the various comments and to see how people justify there actions. I have been in the Safety profession for many years and have seen significant improvement in Safety performance. What improvement I have not seen is workers who own up to making mistakes and the corresponding accident. It seems like the provado in many of the below comments is "I'm just a worker, and I should not be held accountable for the negative things I do". In almost every accident I have investigated, the worker got hurt because they did something dumb! In many cases the grumbling worker's reaction has been to blame some one else or the COMPANY! Grow up already - A company is nothing more then a group of workers (yes YOU) who pool their efforts together to make money(profit)for themselves and family. Here we go again lets -"cover your butt", instead of working together to better ourselves!

Fri, Sep 10, 2010

The company I work for knows from recent dealings with OSHA that OSHA has become fixated on recordkeeping (and yes politically motivated). The true shame of this is that OSHA is missing the forest for the trees. Is it proper recordkeeping keeping workers safe and going home to their families every night, or is it an effective safety management process and active participation from all levels of the organization responsible for this? Please don’t misunderstand; I am not saying that recordkeeping is not important.

The inspection that took place on our project found “no” physical hazards on the jobsite. This was a @ 100 million dollar structural steel project deep in the middle of the schedule with all potentially dangerous trades fully involved. There was no pat on the back or recognition from OSHA that the project teams and companies were effectively managing the safety process on the jobsite. Granted we all have a responsibility that this be done. However, instead, we were cited for some minor administrative errors on an OSHA log from 4 years ago that had nothing to do with this project or these teams.

The errors were not hidden claims but honest mistakes. Quite frankly, the only reason we generate a 300 log is for regulatory requirements – we use far more sophisticated means to track and trend safety on our jobsites and company including the leading indicators. If a company does not manage safety and is hiding claims they deserve both barrels from OSHA and should be put out of business and let those of us that are engaged step in, however, if the company is actively managing the safety management process and is truly engaged, this is just a slap in the face and is counterproductive. OSHA is beating their chest about the wrong issues.

Wed, Sep 8, 2010 Sam Houston

It's pure politics. Punish the remaining manufacturing businesses until they too flee this country. Haven't you heard? Business is evil - government is good. Americans are evil - illegal aliens are good. Freedom is evil - taxes are good.

Wed, Sep 8, 2010

Pay the Fine or Punish the Employee? With todays lawsuit happy environment, after you discipline the employee for violating Safety policy, they file suit and you have to pay lega fees or they go to the EEOC and file a complaint and the employer spends just as much time and resources to prove that they were not discriminating against a protected status. OSHA needs to help the employers enforce policy by making sure the EEOC stands up to the BS claims. We fired a guy for violating safety policy and ended up dealing with it for a year. Not to mention if the employee goes to the media, and says they were terminated wrongfully.... then the company has to prove innocence. especially when the media wants to make a big deal about discrimination. I teach Diversity to thousands of people a year and I still see people pull this crap when they get fired for violating policy.

Wed, Sep 8, 2010 John Illinois

As a "safety professional", I am glad to see that OSHA fines are finally getting high enough to be effective. OSHA fines have lagged FAR behind the EPA, DOT, and import/export for years. We've seen employees killed due to blatent actions by their companies and the fines were 1/10 of what the company would have gotten for sending in their environmental report a month late or shipping hazardous materials in the wrong containers. There was a case some years back of a company where inndividuals died in 2 seperate trench related incidents. The company clearly did not care and failed to fix the problems after the first incident. The owner was brought to court and finally was charged a moderate fine and given no jail time. In 2001, a facility killed a worker in a sulfuric acid explosion and was fined $175,000. The EPA came in and fined them 10 million for the same incident because of the threat to aquatic organisms. Blaming an employee for getting killed on the job because they failed to follow a safety procedure is like blaming a child for getting hit by a drunk driver because they failed to look both ways before crossing the street. It's far too lengthy a topic...but there are always reasons employees "work around" safety procedures...and rarely does the company not know about it.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Yes employees that remove safeguards and managers that allow it should pay fines. This is a top down problem when things are not safe or allowed to be altered without regard for fellow workers saftey.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Benjy Bell Texas

Would someone please tell me what a " safety professional " is ? What makes a person so? Does a " Safety Professional" make the workplace Safe?

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Terry Minnesota

It IS getting too political when it should be (and for most of us it is) all about employee safety. If you have been listening to Hilda, OSHA & MSHA lately, you get a very strong message that they are "out to get the bad guys" (new sheriff!? - getting congress to re-set the fine structure?) Are "They" really all about employee safety? I think NOT! The truely "bad actors" need to be weeded out and dealt with sternly - but the rest of us who are making a serious effort to offer our employees a safe work environment don't need to be threatened and held hostage to an angry department of labor. Every situation needs to be judged on it's own merrit, but don't you think that a million dollar fine for a record keeping violation is a little "over the top"?! You had better be careful what you wish for!

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Patrick P Louisiana

I am reviewing the comments, and I am amazed and extremely concerned. The message here is clear, NO politics are involved. From a regulatory standing, placing blame on workers who do their job safely day in and day out is not the answer. Paying attention to and repremanding repeat offenders of safety violations will improve safety culture. OSHA/DOL has reviewed MANDATORY documentation reporting as a willful violation. Companies including the one in which I am currently employed have repeatedly attempted to (doctor) the OSHA 200 and more recently 300 logs. Company manipulation runs industry wide. This unfourtunate tragic accident revealed all the many incidents that were covered up, and led up to this persons accident. These two companies willfully spent large sums of time and probably money to (PAD) their records. Sometimes their actions are viewed as criminial. Workers lives are literally in the balance.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

So you safety professionals don't feel the employee has any responsibility for their own safety. Only the employer and not the employee should see to it the employee goes home safe and whole each day.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Looks like there are some safety professionals who identify more with right wing talking points and corporate profits than with employee safety. For the sake of employees everywhere (and my pride as a safety professional) please choose another profession. Leave safety to us "socialists" who proudly work to ensure employees go home to their family whole and healthy at the end of each day.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Not redistribute wealth but instead redistribute "ill-gotten gains". Ill-gotten gains are profits made through illegal, unethical or unsafe means and at the expense of our fine working men and women. You know, like British Petroleum. No different.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

At the rate OSHA is placing these huge fines against these companies the only employer that will be left in the U.S. will be OSHA. The problem with the fines against the corporation is the employee that violates the safety policy is not always the one to lose the hand or pay the fine. OSHA investigations go to root cause; if the employee is the root cause let the employee pay the fine. If the employee loses a hand, the employee continues to get paid and we all know there are those employees that want a long ride on the company's back and are willing to be injured to do so. If a manager allows violations, the manager should pay the fine. OSHA needs to hold each employee responsible. OSHA needs to get the employees' attention as well as the corporations'.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

The only thing that separates our employees and the employees in China is regulations and fines. Don't forget U.S. history and begin to think our corporations and businesses would be providing for the safety and well being of employees if not forced to.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/4330988/regulations-overwhelming-small-businesses/?playlist_id=87185

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Bill

I can't believe the comments about socialism / facism. This IS about employee safety -- not politics... and if the employer's won't do it then the (finally!) heavy hand of gov't will. OSHA has been around since 1970 ... it's no secret. The violations are egregious -- we're not talking about a company being smacked around because a light bulb was 2 lumens too dark -- an employee lost a HAND for crying out loud! And lets face it .. when fines are cheaper than compliance, it's a lot easier to write the check... Socialism ... get real. Take that crap and spew it back to Limbaugh, Beck et. al. These are multi-million dollar companies. They want to run with the big dogs -- this comes with the territory. The real shame in all of this is that COMPLIANCE IS SO FREAKEN EASY!!! Go tell the guy who is now on welfare because he's limited to Worker's Compensation after his employer took his hand about Socialism. Hopefully he punches you with the good arm.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Safety

They have to fund the pay raise, it also does not say who tampered with the safety devices, was it the employee who lost the hand? This is another reason the industry needs to take the focus off of recordable incidents as a measurement of success. Just about everything is recordable in current times, and there is a prescription out there for everything. got a splinter, here are some antibiotics. I think tracking injuries is important even minor ones, but insurance companies and customers need to stop using it as a measurment for business. They should be looking at Lost time incidents or restricted duty. I also believe that the recordkeeping requirements need to be adjusted. These are the more serious.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

Just another way to "redistribute wealth"...it is not concern for the well-being of the employees!

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 DennisS

Ask the guy whose hand was amputated if that fine was enough because of shortcuts. Fines should be dealt out in order to get the business' attention in order to make workers safe. Too small of a fine and the company just laughs at it...

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

This is how a Socialist/Facist funds it's policies and programs. Right up to and including the destruction of the actual currency. Got Gold & Silver?

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 Lester

Dirt bag companies know they are trying to sneak past the regs. Hit them where it hurts-> profits

Tue, Sep 7, 2010

I dunno. Somebody lost their hand. That's a pretty serious issue. On the other hand, recordkeeping...well, I guess I can see steep fines if the recordkeeping problems lead to serious injury or death, or if the company had been repeatedly warned or cited and refused to comply.

Tue, Sep 7, 2010 MarkP Rock IS.

$4 million is way too high. this is just getting political. $100,000 would have been appropriate. these high fines are going to backfire against the agency.

Add your Comment

Your Name:(optional)
Your Email:(optional)
Your Location:(optional)
Comment:
Please type the letters/numbers you see above

Follow Us

OH&S is on Twitter.

Join OH&S Magazine on SafetyCommunity!
Join us on SafetyCommunity!

Upcoming Webinars

2/29: GHS will happen…are you ready?
We invite you to attend this webinar to see how GHS is being used today in several workplaces to enhance worker comprehension and safety.

3/14: 10 Webinar Best Practices. Step-by-step guide to executing a winning webinar
By attending this webinar about webinars, you will learn the what, why and how’s of this exciting, collaborative marketing tool.

Spotlight

For February, OH&S puts the spotlight on:

Poll

A Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources emergency preparedness conference in April will include presentations about the Joplin tornado's damage to a major hospital and a Vermont hospital's evacuation during severe flooding. What lessons have you learned from such events?