OSHA Finds Pepsi Guam Bottling Employees Exposed to Injuries, Cites Company
The company left the guard doors of a bottle-labeling machine open and turned off a safety switch, according to the agency.
- By Alex Saurman
- Mar 02, 2023
After allegedly exposing employees to injuries, one company is facing citations for eight violations along with proposed penalties of about $180,000.
According to a news release, OSHA found that employees of Pepsi Guam Bottling were at risk of getting injured—including injuries as severe as amputations—because the guard doors of a bottle-labeling machine were left open and a safety switch had been turned off.
The agency said the company had turned off the safety proximity switch in order to “allow workers to reach into a bottle-labeling machine as often as 15 times an hour to grab and fix labels and adjust tipping bottles to avoid slowing or stopping production.”
Additionally, OSHA said that Pepsi Guam Bottling did not have lockout/tagout placement procedures, use a chuck guard or perform respirator fit testing, among other violations. The company’s citations for eight violations come with proposed penalties of $180,807.
“By exposing workers to the risk of severe injury, Pepsi Guam Bottling showed a willingness to put profit before the safety of its employees,” explained OSHA Regional Administrator James Wulff in San Francisco in the news release. “Industrial machinery is unforgiving and can cause sudden, severe and disabling injuries or worse when machine guards are bypassed.”