Pepsi Guam Bottling has been issued with proposed penalties of $180,807 after the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found the company had endangered its workers by disabling safety devices.
OSHA discovered the company permitted employees to reach into a bottle-labeling machine up to 15 times an hour to fix labels and adjust tipping bottles by leaving the machine's guard doors open and deactivating a safety proximity switch, according to a Feb. 28 news release. The agency alleged the company failed to protect workers from operating machine parts, exposing them to the risk of amputation and other serious injuries.
“By exposing workers to the risk of severe injury, Pepsi Guam Bottling showed a willingness to put profit before the safety of its employees,” OSHA San Francisco Regional Administrator James Wulff said in the release.
The proposed penalties for the Guam bottling plant include one willful violation, one repeat violation and six serious violations of machine safety procedures, according to the release. OSHA also identified failures to comply with electrical safe work practices and respiratory protection standards.
The inspection was carried out as part of OSHA’s regional emphasis programs for amputations and warehousing operations, and it is the latest example of the agency's focus on employers’ responsibility to maintain a safe working environment, the release reported.
Wulff warned industrial machinery can cause severe and disabling injuries or worse when safety procedures are not followed, the release reported. Specifically, OSHA found Pepsi Guam Bottling failed to protect employees from rotating parts and in-going nip point and burn hazards during operation, develop specific procedures for lockout/tagout devices, enclose sprocket wheels and chains on a packer machine and protect employees from respiratory hazards.
The company has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, according to the release.
