Injury rates are high among production employees
- With injury rates among the more than 90,000 food production workers in Illinois and Ohio significantly higher than other manufacturing workers, the U.S. Labor Department ramped up efforts to reduce workplace hazards.
- OSHA began the outreach phase of the Local Emphasis Program for more than 1,400 manufacturing plants in Illinois and Ohio where workers manufacture and process confectionery, animal, fruit, and vegetable-based products.
- Once OSHA completes the three-month outreach effort, the program empowers the agency to schedule and inspect select food industry employers in Illinois and Ohio whose injury rates exceed the state average among all manufacturers.
- The agency also established a similar program in Wisconsin.
OSHA boosts inspectors
- The number of OSHA inspectors grew 19% in the fiscal year 2022, ending several years of minimal growth or losses.
- In 2020, OSHA receives an additional $12.7 million in funding that it will use to increase its Compliance Safety and Health Officer ranks by fifty from current staffing levels.
- That effort has helped OSHA raise staffing levels and they are higher now than they have been in decades.
- This could mean increasingly aggressive enforcement and increased penalties.
Caterpillar faces fines for safety issues
- OSHA proposed fines of $145,027 against Caterpillar Inc. for not installing a guardrail or travel restraint at a foundry outside Peoria, Illinois, where a worker fell into molten iron in June.
- Steven Dierkes, 39, of Peoria, died instantly after falling into a crucible at the Mapleton foundry.
- The OSHA investigation found “the foundry routinely exposed employees to unprotected fall hazards” while they worked within 4 feet of containers of molten iron.
- Dierkes’ death was the second to occur at the Mapleton foundry in six months.
Roofing company has repeated violations
- A Massachusettes roofing contractor exposed workers on the roofs of a garage and house in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood to potentially fatal falls from heights between seven and 21 feet.
- Since 2014, OSHA has cited The Roof Kings LLC five times for hazards related to falls, the leading cause of death in the construction industry.
- Following its recent investigation, OSHA cited the contractor for four willful and two serious violations of workplace safety standards and proposed $137,196 in penalties.
- The employer also did not provide hard hats to workers to protect them from falling construction debris and materials.