REPUBLIC TECHNOLOGIES HEADLINESSteel Producers /
Republic Technologies
OSHA Cites Republic for Repeat Exposures to Fall and Energy Control Hazards
May 17, 2011 The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited steel manufacturer Republic Engineered Products Inc. in Lorain for seven willful and three repeat safety violations for failing to protect workers from fall hazards and implement adequate energy source lockout/tagout procedures to prevent injury from hazardous equipment. Proposed penalties total $563,000.
OSHA defines a willful violation as one committed with intentional knowledge or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or with plain indifference to worker safety and health.
A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years.
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OSHA also placed the company on the Agency's Severe Violators Enforcement Program, which focuses enforcement resources on employers that have demonstrated indifference to their Occupational Safety and Health Act obligations by committing willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations.
OSHA began its inspection of the Lorain facility in November 2010 after a worker was hospitalized with a broken pelvis when he fell 9 feet from a coil transfer car in the bar mill. The willful violations resulting from the inspection carried proposed penalties of $480,500 for exposing employees to falls from the car and an unguarded platform, and for failing to affix lockout/tagout devices to control the unexpected energizing of equipment.
OSHA cited repeat violations with proposed fines of $82,500 for failing to train employees in lockout/tagout procedures; specify the procedural steps necessary to lock out electrical, hydraulic and gravitational energy sources for the coil transfer car; and isolate all hazardous energy sources. The company had been cited in 2008 at both the Lorain facility and its Blasdell, N.Y., facility for failing to develop and adequately train workers on lockout/tagout procedures. The company’s Blasdell facility was also cited in 2008 for failure to properly operate energy isolation devices.
The company's Lorain location, which employs approximately 250 people, also was cited by OSHA in 2010 in another incident for 13 violations and fined $143,000. The Lorain facility has been inspected 25 times since 1990, resulting in 76 violations in addition to those currently being cited. Excluding the Lorain location, the company's combined sites have been inspected 53 times since 1990, resulting in a total of 124 violations.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Headquartered in Canton, Ohio, Republic Engineered Products Inc. employs more than 2200 workers companywide and operates additional manufacturing facilities in Canton and Massillon, Ohio, as well as in Blasdell, N.Y.; Gary, Ind.; and Hamilton, Ont., in Canada.