N.Y. manufacturer faces additional OSHA fines

A Conklin, N.Y., manufacturer of industrial screening media faces an additional $75,000 in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for failing to correct machine guarding hazards cited during a previous OSHA inspection.

Samscreen Inc. was cited by OSHA in June 2007 for inadequate guarding of moving machine parts and other hazards at its 216 Broome Corporate Parkway manufacturing plant. The company agreed to correct all cited hazards and paid a fine of $4,725. However, an OSHA follow-up inspection begun in February 2008 found that three press brakes and eight revolving rollers remained unprotected, leaving employees exposed to potential laceration, amputation and crushing injuries.

"The purpose of machine guarding is to prevent any part of an employee's body from coming in contact with a machine's moving parts," said Christopher Adams, OSHA's area director in Syracuse. "The sizable fine proposed here reflects the seriousness of this employer's ongoing failure to effectively safeguard its employees against this potentially deadly hazard."

As a result, OSHA issued Samscreen two failure to abate citations, with $75,000 in proposed fines. OSHA issues a failure to abate citation when an employer does not correct a cited violation by an established date. OSHA may impose a penalty of up to $7,000 per day for each violation.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations to contest them before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.