Last week, the annual Top Ten List of the Most Violated OSHA Regulations was released at the annual safety conference hosted by Illinois’ National Safety Council.
Once again, the same kinds of dangers appear on the OSHA Violation Top Ten list. The top ten dangers rarely change much – some risks move up or down the list, but year after year most of the risks to certain workers remain the same. Particularly for those working in construction, there appears to be a pattern of safety regulations being discounted or ignored.
For details, read our discussion in “2018 OSHA Top Ten List of Most Violated Federal Worker Safety Regulations.” Safety regulations designed to protect employees from serious fall injuries are of particular concern.
2018 NSC Safety Congress Discussion: OSHA Explains the Company Attitude
The October 2018 National Safety Council Congress & Expo was the largest gathering of safety professionals in the world this year.
Worker Dips Foot into Tank of Hot Acid
One of the seminar presentations was OSHA’s “Most Interesting” Technical Session. Described in NSC’s Safety and Health Magazine, the presentation included a panel discussion where an OSHA Compliance Officer from the Cleveland, Ohio office described workers being seriously burned by acid while working in a plating factory.
OSHA Officer Janelle Madzia told the audience about injuries sustained by one employee, who slipped while working on the factory’s production line and his foot “dipped” into a tank filled with hot acid (about 170° F).
OSHA’s Madzia explained that this kind of injury was no surprise to the employer. Since the 1980s, there had been similar accidents involving workers being burned by hot acid in a slip and fall incident.
Company Pattern of Hot Acid Injuries Once Every 90 Days – For Decades
All this time, over three decades, workers had to climb on top of tanks filled with hot acid to fix jams in the production line when something blocked or stopped production.
From 2011 to 2015 alone Madzia explained, 16 workers were hurt in slip and fall accidents involving these hot acid tanks. That averages to 4 workers falling into the hot acid tanks each year, or one hot acid injury every 90 days. For decades.
The company’s reaction to all these burning acid injuries to their workers?
OSHA’s explanation, quoted in NSC’s Safety and Health Magazine:
“They just went back to their old ways until an injury would occur again,” Madzia said.
Things are now better for these factory workers. OSHA reported that the company received 11 serious violations for the hot acid injury pattern, one willful and another with fines totaling more than $250,000. Afterwards, they took “corrective actions” to protect their workers, including better fall protections.
Employer Callousness to Danger of Serious Injury to Employees
This company policy regarding allowing a continuing pattern of hot acid injuries to factory workers is commonplace. As the repetitive OSHA Top Ten Lists demonstrate, worker safety is all too often disregarded when costs are considered, and weighed against the bottom line for maximizing profits.
It is very profitable to discount the risk of injury to workers. As advocates for injured workers and grieving loved ones of those who died from injuries sustained in on-the-job accidents, we have years of experience dealing with corporations who put profits over people and consider bodily harm to their employees solely as a component of financial risk analysis.
Consider The 2018 Dirty Dozen List
Some may consider our attitude to be biased. In response, we point to the 48-page study published by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (“COSH”), entitled “The Dirty Dozen 2018: Employers Who Put Workers and Communities at Risk.”
In 2018, the following companies appear on the Dirty Dozen list. Consider the success of each of these enterprises in generating high revenue and profits:
1. Amazon
2. Case Farms
3. Dine Brands Global, Inc. (IHOP and Applebee’s)
4. JK Excavating
5. Lowe’s Home Improvement
6. Lynnway Auto Auction
7. New York and Atlantic Railway
8. Patterson UTI Energy
9. Sarbanand Farms
10. Tesla Motors
11. Verla International
12. Waste Management.
In order to achieve ranking among the “Dirty Dozen,” each company was evaluated regarding worker accidents involving (1) severity of injuries to workers; (2) exposure to unnecessary and preventable risk; (3) repeat citations by relevant state and federal authorities; and (4) activity by workers to improve their health and safety conditions.
Warning to All Workers in Indiana and Illinois
As advocates for employees seriously injured or killed on the job here in Indiana or Illinois, we know that all too often, the greater financial accomplishments of the employer may coincide with higher risk of injury to the workers whose efforts are generating that revenue.
While there are situations where strapped employers are forced to cut corners on safety to keep people on the payroll, as these reports confirm, much more often it is the profitable employers that see fit to place their workers at risk.
For anyone working in dangerous conditions on the job in Indiana or Illinois, or for those who have been seriously injured on the job, it is important to know your legal rights under both state and federal law.
Companies are legally responsible for keeping their employees safe from harm. Sadly, many have decided that it is easier for them to deal with the aftermath of accidents rather than to protect workers from serious or deadly risks from things like electrocution, acid burns, or falls from scaffolds or ladders.
For more, see:
- Construction Worker’s Danger of Being Hurt or Killed on the Job: High Risk and Little Protection
- Hurt on the Job Site: Workers Afraid to Make a Safety Complaint
- Profits Over People: Corporate Greed in the News.
Please be careful out there!
