Company bashed OSHA on YouTube, fined $758K
Here's a tip for safety pros: If you want to minimize the amount of attention your company gets from OSHA, don't post sprawling criticisms of the safety agency online. It seems pretty obvious, but it wasn't for All-Feed Processing and Packaging, Inc., based in Alpha, IL. Inspectors issued 23 violations following a May inspection of the Galva, IL site that uncovered:
• nine per-instance willful violations for failing to mandate that six workers use respirators, and
• four single-instance willful violations for combustible dust, noise and electrical hazards.
Those 13 citations make up more than $700,000 of the fine. The inspectors also uncovered repeat and serious violations, several of which were cited under OSHA's General Duty Clause.
A long history
Why did inspectors throw the book at the company? No surprise: The company has a history with OSHA. All-Feed has been inspected 11 times since 2000 and is in the agency's Severe Violator Enforcement Program. The company even barred inspectors from entering the facility and forced them to get a warrant. The firm also took to Facebook and YouTube calling OSHA the "oppression of American business." The company has since taken down the YouTube videos, and the OSHA tab on its site displays an upside down American flag.
Reprinted with Permission from:
Safety Compliance Alert 11/25/11
Posted on
Tue, December 6, 2011
by Kim Bowman