Two California employers are facing $300,000 in penalties after a worker suffered amputations cleaning machinery.
On Oct. 2, 2018, a Priority Workforce temporary worker was assigned to work at a JSL Foods Inc. food manufacturing facility in Los Angeles.
The employee was cleaning a dough rolling machine when his left hand was partially pulled into the moving rollers, amputating two fingers.
“Lockout/tagout procedures are required to protect employees who maintain powered equipment with moveable parts,” said Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum, in a statement. “Employers must ensure the procedures are in place and are followed.”
Agency investigators inspected the facility after the incident. They discovered the machine did not have proper guarding from pinch points and were not energized or locked out to prevent the machine from engaging. In addition, neither JSL Foods nor Priority Workforce provided lockout/tagout training to the worker prior to cleaning the equipment.
Cal/OSHA cited JSL Foods for seven violations totaling $276,435 in penalties. The violations included one willful repeat serious violation and one willful repeat serious accident-related violation for failing to follow lockout/tagout procedures. JSL Foods previously was cited in 2015 for the same violations.
Priority Workforce received three serious violations for failure to establish, implement, and maintain an effective Injury and Illness Prevention Program, failure to ensure employees were effectively trained and failure to ensure the machinery was adequately guarded. These totaled $29,250 in proposed fines.
