$2.2 million in OSHA fines for major furniture company

October 23rd, 2015 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued its third round of employee safety violation fines for a major furniture company in 2015. According to Journal Now, the OSHA proposed $431,000 in fines for failing to protect workers from the dangerous machinery used to manufacture the company's products on Oct. 19, 2015. In April, OSHA proposed citations for one willful, two serious and five repeated violations at the same company. The most recent fines, in conjunction with the previously proposed ones, bring the total to $2.2 million for the company's Wisconsin facilities.

"Workers risked amputation injuries each time they serviced the machinery," Mark Hysell, OSHA's area director in Eau Claire, told Journal Now. "[The company] failed to implement required safety procedures to protect machine operators until after OSHA opened its inspection. The company must make immediate, enforceable safety improvements at its facilities nationwide."

Workers at the facilities in question were at risk when they changed blades, cleaned or cleared jams in furniture manufacturing machiner because the machines could unintentionally start up during these actions. The company failed to implement any procedures or technology that would prevent the possibility of worker injury due to these conditions, according to Journal Now.

Citations were unfounded says furniture company
Furniture Today reported Paul Waters, legal counsel for the company issued the fines, called OSHA's report outrageous. According to Waters, the company has all of the necessary safety guards in place and has even implemented a number of additional features to improve safety further.

"We will vigorously defend ourselves against these charges before the Review Commission," Waters told Furniture Today.

OSHA listed more than 1,000 work-related injuries during a 3-and-a-half-year stint at the plant in Feb. 2015. At that time, OSHA said they found 38 safety violations at a facility in Arcadia, Wisconsin and proposed $1.77 million in fines. OSHA issued $83,000 in fines in July 2015 for additional violations that lead to a worker amputation injury at the same plant.

The company said in a statement OSHA's report is not factual and inspectors acted on allegations instead of actual findings.

The company has 15 days from the date on the receipt of the latest citations to comply, request a conference with OSHA or contest the findings before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

The company told Furniture Today it is ready to present the facts to OSHA and resolve the issues.