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The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined Formed Fiber Technologies Inc. $115,000 for 11 safety violations. According to an OSHA regional news release, OSHA found the violations during an investigation that was conducted after a complaint was filed against the Sidney, Ohio automotive manufacturing plant.
Formed Fiber Technologies’ 11 violations included three repeat abuses and seven serious ones. The repeat violations involved machine-specific energy procedures, such as failing to conduct annual inspections of energy control procedures or record complete injury and illness information in the OSHA record logs. The serious violations included:
Failing to affix locking devices to energy isolation points
Failing to ensure adequate machine guarding
Failing to ensure adequate training on the control of hazardous energy
As a result of its violations, Formed Fiber Technologies has been placed in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which is reserved for employers that have a history of endangering workers by committing willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations. Companies in the program are subject to OSHA inspecting any of its facilities if it has reasonable grounds to believe that the company is continuing to commit violations, specifically violations similar to those that landed it in the program.
“Formed Fiber Technologies has a responsibility to protect workers from amputation, struck-by and crushing hazards by implementing energy control procedures and ensuring adequate machine guarding,” Kim Nelson, the OSHA area director in Toledo, told the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Public Affairs. “Repeat violations demonstrate a lack of commitment to worker safety and health.”
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