Some are household names. Some you’ve probably never heard of. But they share one thing in common: They find themselves on a group’s list of companies that put workers and communities at risk due to unsafe practices.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (National COSH) released the list in observance of Workers’ Memorial Week which honors employees who lost their lives on the job.
Among the companies on the list, and National COSH’s reason for including them:
- Amazon: Seven workers killed at Amazon warehouses since 2013, including three workers within five weeks at three locations in 2017.
- Case Farms: One of the nation’s top meat and poultry producers, it supplies chicken to customers including Taco Bell, Boar’s Head and the U.S. government school lunch program. National COSH says Case has a pattern of hiring undocumented workers, then firing them when they are injured or request better working conditions. Case has 74 OSHA violations per 1,000 employees, more than four times higher than any other poultry company.
- Tesla Motors: The manufacturer of electric cars had 31% higher recordable injuries than the industry average. Tesla claimed it reduced its injury rates, but a recent investigation showed the company didn’t report some types of injuries, making its injury rates look better than they actually were.
- Waste Management: The nation’s largest waste disposal company has been cited more than 60 times by OSHA, resulting in nearly $1 million in fines. Among the reasons for the fines: A 23-year-old worker was killed at one of Waste Management’s recycling facilities because the company failed to require lockout/tagout of machinery during repairs.
- Lynnway Auto Auction: This Billerica, MA, company was cited by OSHA and warned of vehicle safety hazards in 2014. Five people died in a preventable auto crash, including a 37-year-old mom working her first day on the job.
To see the entire Dirty Dozen, click here.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 5,190 people died from workplace injuries in 2016, a 7% increase from 2015.
