OSHA Cites Ga. Company for Failing to Protect Workers

The U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Golden State Food Corporation for exposing workers to safety and health hazards at its Conyers, Georgia, plant. The agency is proposing penalties totaling $76,000.

OSHA issued one willful citation, with a maximum proposed penalty of $55,000, for failing to provide guardrails on work-station platforms that were four or more feet above ground level.

“Workers brought this safety hazard to management’s attention,” said Gei-Thae Breezley, OSHA’s Atlanta-East area director. “When the company failed to correct the hazard, our office was contacted,”

The agency issues a willful citation when a company has shown an intentional disregard of, or plain indifference to, the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and regulations.

The company was also cited for other workplace hazards observed during the Nov. 30 inspection. Included in the citations were: inadequate electrical wiring; failure to provide employees with personal protective equipment; lack of an emergency eye-wash station; and failure to develop and implement a lockout-tagout program that rendered machinery inoperable during maintenance and repair. Proposed penalties total $21,000.

The company has 15 working days from receipt of the citations to contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.