The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has
cited American Spincast Inc. for fifty safety and health violations, comprised of thirty two
serious safety violations and eighteen serious health violations. They come in response to an
inspection of a worksite in Belton, Texas in October of 2014 as part of the OSHA’s Site Specific
Targeting Program, due to the high-hazard nature of the workplace. These violations are for
hazards relating to a failure to provide guardrails, forklift safety, machine guarding, arc welding,
Hazard Communication, and hazardous material storage. These violations carry proposed
penalties of $165,200.
“These workers were needlessly exposed to hearing loss, falls and other dangers,” said Casey
Perkins, area director of OSHA’s Austin Area Office. “American Spincast failed to provide the
minimal protective standards required by law. Employers need to implement programs for
finding and fixing these hazards before workers become seriously injured or receive irreversible
health effects.”
The findings ranged a myriad of areas of occupational safety and health, showing that when
OSHA investigates a worksite, they will do a complete, wall-to-wall inspection. This means that
all deficiencies will be found, even in areas which OSHA was not specifically targeting at your
place of business.
As such, it is imperative to ensure your occupational safety and health policies and procedures
are updated and accurate to ensure your employees are safe and you will not be liable for
excessive penalties in the event of an audit. To help ensure compliant policies and procedures, it
might be a good idea to contact a qualified third party occupational safety and health auditing
firm to review them.
If you have any questions about this audit or about updating your occupational safety and health
procedures, please contact us. If you have anything to add about third party occupational safety
and health audits, please leave a comment.
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