Manufacturing and industrial worksites can be flatly dangerous places in which to work, as evidenced by safety-related numbers and statistics issuing from diverse federal and state organizations tasked with oversight of worker safety.
Construction accidents and other on-the-job injuries can arise from any number and type of unsafe conditions involving moving equipment, electrical wires, scaffolding, the presence of hazardous materials such as noxious chemicals, and other sources.
Those types of dangers are precisely what OSHA investigators look for when inspecting a workplace, with their degree of scrutiny often affected by whether a business entity has come within the scope of their focus on prior occasions.
One Cleveland-based company certainly knows that quite well, having been subjected to seven OSHA inspections since 1996.
The eighth inspection, following a complaint lodged last August, resulted recently in federal safety regulators handing out 21 safety citations to Cleveland Granite & Marble, with three of those being deemed “willful violations.”
Violations termed willful, states OSHA, are those committed “with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard … to worker safety and health.” Cleveland Granite was cited for deficiencies in protecting the hearing of its employees and in properly training workers operating industrial trucks and doing crane inspections.
Other citations included these: failure to properly guard energy/electrical sources; failure to keep exits clear; and failure to have an adequate respiratory protection program.
OSHA levied a proposed penalty of $98,000 on the company, citing its “responsibility to implement health and safety programs that protect workers from known hazards.”
Source: Norwalk Reflector, “OSHA cites Ohio company for exposing workers to safety and health hazards; proposed fines total $98,000,” Jan. 10, 2013
- Our firm provides strong legal representation to workers injured in construction accidents. For more information, please visit our Cleveland Construction Accident page.