OSHA fines Ohio food processor following amputation

• An OSHA investigation at one of the world’s leading suppliers of processed foods found a temporary worker’s finger amputation occurred when they reached into a meat grinder’s discharge port that lacked required safety guards.
• Investigators responded to a report of a serious injury suffered by a 29-year-old kitchen worker at Zwanenberg Food Group USA in Cincinnati. OSHA learned that the worker had been on the job for seven months.
• OSHA cited the company for two repeat violations, one for not having required machine guarding on the discharge port, and one for failing to train employees on the company’s lockout/tagout procedures.
• The incident is the second since 2022 that a temporary worker suffered an amputation and Zwanenberg faces $242,197 in proposed OSHA penalties.
  Read more

Supreme Court vacates COVID-19 rule

• The U.S. Supreme Court vacated as moot decisions challenging President Joe Biden’s vaccine requirement for federal employees.
• In a 2022 opinion, the Supreme Court blocked the OSHA’s vaccine-or-testing rule for large employers and the agency later withdrew that directive.
• In a separate opinion, the Supreme Court allowed the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to require COVID-19 vaccination for healthcare workers at Medicare- and Medicaid-certified providers and suppliers.
• The Supreme Court agreed with the Biden administration that the cases were no longer needed.
  Read more

Potential program could focus on chemical safety

• OSHA is considering the development of a chemical management system over concerns that small and medium-sized employers may not have the resources to protect workers from chemicals.
• Smaller businesses can’t manage safety concerns over exposure to chemicals.
• However, many larger employers can develop their own chemical protection programs.
• The proposed program is currently in the developmental phase but would guide for protecting workers from chemical hazards.
  Read more

Illinois construction firm aces $275K in penalties

• Federal workplace safety inspectors found a Palatine contractor did not provide roofing employees with required fall protection, exposing them to the risk of falls from elevation, the construction industry’s leading cause of workplace deaths twice within a month.
• These workplace safety violations by Ricardo Gallardo – operating as R&R Construction Services Inc. – are the fifth and sixth times since 2019 that inspectors with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration discovered the company violating federal regulations for protecting workers from falls.
• OSHA inspectors opened an investigation after they observed eight roofers working without fall protection at heights over 6 feet at a residential homework site in Palos Heights. Later, inspectors observed crews — again without required protection — working atop a residential roof in Joliet.
• OSHA cited the company for one willful violation and four repeat violations and assessed $275,869 in penalties.
  Read more