New Year’s Resolution: Avoid Citations and Penalties!

Yesterday, we reported several big OSHA enforcement actions with costly price tags for the employers cited. Today, we’ll review a couple more big-dollar cases involving willful, repeat, and serious violations. Ohio Steelmaker Faces More Than 500K in Proposed Fines

A steelmaker in Lorain, Ohio, faces $563,000 in proposed fines for inadequate lockout/tagout procedures and for failing to protect workers from fall hazards. The company has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program.

The agency launched an inspection of the facility in November 2010, after a worker was hospitalized with a broken pelvis following a 9-foot-fall from a transfer car.

The willful violations carry proposed fines of $480,500. Repeat violations totaling $82,500 were issued for problems that included failing to affix lockout/tagout devices to prevent unexpected equipment start-ups.

OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels says there was “no excuse” for the company to continue neglecting worker safety. Referring to the long history of OSHA violations, Michaels said the company “needs to make a serious effort to comply with commonsense regulations to protect its employees.”

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OSHA Proposed $600K in Fines for NH Supermarket Chain

OSHA has cited a supermarket chain for 30 alleged willful, repeat, and serious violations at stores in Rindge and Concord, New Hampshire.

The grocery chain, headquartered in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, is facing $589,200 in proposed fines. The citations address recurring fall and laceration hazards and improper response to a worker’s serious injury.

The inspection at the Rindge store began after an employee sustained broken bones and head trauma in April during an 11-foot fall from an inadequately guarded storage mezzanine.

Instead of calling for emergency help, OSHA says store management lifted the injured worker from the floor, put him in a wheelchair, and pushed him to the receiving dock to wait for a relative to take him to the hospital.

Another inspection began in May after an OSHA supervisor shopping at the store in Concord observed the same type of fall hazard as the one at the Rindge store.

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Avoid Citations and Penalties

BLR’s Safety Audit Checklists provides safety and health checklists on more than 50 essential workplace topics to help you comply with OSHA requirements and avoid citations and penalties.

Each Safety Audit Checklists section contains:

• A review of applicable OSHA standards
• Safety management tips
• Training requirements
• At least one comprehensive safety checklist

Many sections also contain a compliance checklist, which highlights key provisions of OSHA standard. All checklists can be copied and circulated to supervisors and posted for employees.

All told, this best-selling program provides you with more than 300 separate safety checklists keyed to three main criteria:

• OSHA compliance checklists, built right from the government standards in such key areas as HazCom, lockout/tagout, electrical safety, and many more.
• "Plaintiff attorney" checklists, built around those non-OSHA issues that often attract lawsuits.
• Safety management checklists that monitor the administrative procedures you need to have for topics such as OSHA 300 Log maintenance, training program scheduling and recording, and OSHA-required employee notifications. 

Make as many copies as you need for all your supervisors and managers, and distribute. What’s more, the entire program is updated annually. And the cost averages only about $1 per checklist.

If this method of ensuring a safer, more OSHA-compliant workplace interests you, we’ll be happy to make Safety Audit Checklists available for a no-cost, no-obligation, 30-day evaluation in your office. Just let us know, and we’ll be pleased to arrange it.