Spurill Products Inc. was recently cited for more than 25 safety and health violations for exposing workers to risks of work accidents in Atlanta. The company’s manufacturing facility in Atlanta was under investigation starting in January as a part of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Site-Specific Targeting Program.
This program directs enforcement efforts and resources to work areas that have reported higher-than-average rates of on-the-job injuries, illnesses and fatalities. All of the fines totaled more than $86,000.The company was slapped with 5 repeat violations. These violations included neglecting to make sure that workers were wearing both eye and face protection, for failing to create and enforce “lockout/tagout” procedures for the energy sources of equipment before workers were going to perform maintenance and service duties, for neglecting to provide employees with the proper training and for not using the proper safeguard equipment on band saws, press brakes and presses.
Our Atlanta workers’ compensation lawyers understand that the company was also cited for letting employees do work on floors in the paint area that were covered with slippery liquids and coating. All of these citations came with proposed fines of nearly $40,000. The government says all of these violations were repeat violations, meaning that the company or the employer had already been cited for these same, or very similar, violations at least once in the last 5 years. Some of the same violations were recorded by this company back in 2008.
Employers are required, under federal law, to make sure that dangers and hazards on the work site are minimized. When risks are blatantly ignored, not only do they run the risks for being busted by federal officials and slapped with appropriate fines, but they also run the risks of injuring employees. Workers need to be aware of their rights and need to speak up if they observe dangerous working conditions.
The company was also slapped with another 16 violations for:
-Neglecting to enact a comprehensive hearing conservation program.
-Neglecting to provide the proper medical evaluations for employees who wore tight-fitting respirators.
-Neglecting to make sure that workers were provided with the proper hand protection while they were handling phosphoric acids and powder paints.
-Neglecting to provide employees with an emergency eye-wash station.
-Neglecting to properly store acetylene and oxygen cylinders.
-Neglecting to provide employees with the proper training regarding chemical hazards.
-Exposing workers to a number of trip and fall hazards.
-Neglecting to safe guard machinery.
-Improperly using relocatable power taps to power industrial equipment.
All of the listed citations came with fines totaling more than $47,500. All of these serious violations are the result of a hazard that the employer knew of or should have known about.
“Employers are responsible for ensuring that employees have a safe and healthful work environment,” said OSHA’s Atlanta Area Office Director, Bill Fulcher.
If you or a family member has been injured or killed in a work accident in Atlanta or in any of the nearby areas, contact the Georgia Worker’s Compensation Attorneys here at J. Franklin Burns, P.C. to schedule your free and confidential appointment to discuss your case. Call 404-920-4708 today.
