Case Farms Processing cited with 55 OSHA violations

August 19th, 2015 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

Case Farms Processing faces fines of $861,500 after an investigation at its Winesburg, Ohio, plant in February by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The company had 55 violations, 30 of which were serious, according to a press release from OSHA. Many of Case Farms Processing's violations exposed workers to potentially harmful or fatal injuries.

"Case Farms is an outrageously dangerous place to work." said David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA, in a statement. "In the past 25 years, Case Farms has been cited for more than 350 safety and health violations. This simply must stop." 

The citations covered a number of different areas including amputation hazards, fall hazards, lack of personal protective equipment, electrical safety hazards, improperly stored oxygen cylinders and lack of emergency eye-wash stations. 

According to Manufacturing Business Technology, the company employs more than 3,200 people across its seven plants. Around 2.8 million chickens are processed at its plants per week and it produces around 900 million pounds of partially cooked frozen-for-export poultry products each year. Since 1988, Case Farms Processing's facilities have been inspected 66 times. In 42 of those inspections, citations were issued by OSHA. 

The company has 15 days from the time that they received the citations to meet compliance. According to Manufacturing Business Technology, the company will need to challenge all of the citations or meet safety compliance and then request a conference with OSHA officials. According to the Times Reporter, Case Farms Processing released a statement saying that they value the safety of their workers.

"As of today, our Winesburg, Ohio, facility has passed the 900,000 employee hours worked milestone without a lost-time injury." the company said in its statement. "We value our employees and are committed to providing a safe and healthy work environment. The citations are being reviewed and we will work with OSHA, as we have in the past, to address the concerns outlined in the citations."

The inspection was spurred by worker complaints to OSHA. The dangers to the 930 workers at the Winesburg facility were well-known, but steps were not taken, according to OSHA.

The Times Reporter said that OSHA has opened another investigation in the Canton, Ohio, Case Farms Processing facility after some reports of injuries were made. The investigation, which started in March, takes six months to complete. After that, citations and fines will be issued for any violations.