Do supervisors listen when employees come to them with safety concerns? Ignoring them can be costly, as this company recently found out.
OSHA has fined Progressive Gourmet $73,400 for repeat and serious violations at its Wilmington, MA, production facility.
Inspections were started by OSHA in September after the agency’s Andover, MA, office received employee safety complaints.
The company was issued two repeat citations with $55,000 in proposed fines for failing to:
- institute adequate procedures to prevent the unintended startup of machinery, such as cookers, ovens and conveyors, while employees performed maintenance on the equipment, and
- provide employees with training on how to power down and lock out machines’ power sources before performing maintenance.
Similar violations were cited at the Wilmington location in 2008.
OSHA also issued Progressive three serious citations with $18,400 in fines for:
- lack of routine inspections and maintenance to ensure safe operation of an anhydrous ammonia refrigeration system
- insufficient space between stored materials and overhead piping containing ammonia to allow for safe access to stored materials, and
- slip and trip hazards from wet floors.
The company has 15 work days to say whether it will appeal the citations to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Progressive Gourmet is a wholesale food manufacturer and distributor for food service and catering industries.
