The Owens-Brockway Glass Container plant in Zanesville, Ohio, has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for six safety violations carrying proposed penalties of $61,000 following a complaint inspection initiated in March. A repeat violation for a lack of signs marking exit directions was just one of the violations.
"Owens-Brockway Glass Container has a responsibility to install properly working exit signs to protect workers on the job," said Deborah Zubaty, OSHA's area director in Columbus, Ohio. "Employers who are cited for repeat violations demonstrate a lack of commitment to employee safety and health."
OSHA issues repeat violations if an employer previously was cited for the same or a similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. The same violation was cited at a facility in Atlanta in 2011.
Five serious violations were also cited, including a lack of fall protection for workers on open-sided platforms, nonworking emergency lighting, failing to require the use of head protection for workers exposed to overhead hazards, lack of an emergency eye-washing station for exposure to corrosive materials, and the use of an electrical panel box that not was protected from water and damp conditions. An OSHA violation is considered serious if death or serious physical harm can result from a hazard an employer knew or should have known exists.
With headquarters in Perrysburg, Ohio, Owens-Brockway Glass Container produces glass containers for the food and beverage industry. The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and notice of proposed penalties to contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. If the company does not file or contest within that period, it must abate the cited conditions within the period ordered in the citations and pay the proposed penalties.
For more information, visit www.osha.gov.