The United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has

cited Alfa Laval Inc. for fifty safety and health violations, comprised of five repeat and forty five

serious violations. They come in response to an inspection of a worksite in Broken Arrow,

Oklahoma in October of 2014. This inspection was initiated as part of the OSHA Severe Violator

Enforcement Program, which the company was in due to due to previous citations in 2010 and

2011. These violations are for hazards relating to lockout tagout procedures, written fire

protection and emergency management plans, and dozens of other areas of occupational safety

and health. These violations carry proposed penalties of $477,900.

“Alfa Laval has no excuse for repeatedly exposing workers to dangerous conditions,” said David

Bates, OSHA’s area director in Oklahoma City. “A continued failure by the company to make

needed changes to its safety program may well result in severe injuries or worse.

As you can see from this example, OSHA inspectors can and will throw the book at you if your

occupational safety and health procedures are lacking. These citations come from violations

across the board, and cover dozens of different areas of occupational safety and health, so even if

you have appropriate safety measures in place in one area, you may find yourself in a situation

where you can get fined in another. Similarly, just because an inspector finds one issue it does

not mean he will not continue to search for additional safety and health violations.

If you have any questions about this finding or about your potential occupational safety and

health shortcomings, please contact us. If you have anything else to add about the importance of

ensuring you are OSHA compliant across the board, please leave a comment.