Nebraska Bakery Faces $122.6K in Penalties for Multiple Workplace Hazards
November 14, 2017
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Bimbo Bakeries USA for exposing workers to multiple hazards at its Bellevue, Nebraska, commercial bakery. The company faces $122,625 in proposed penalties.
Investigators cited the bakery for three repeat and three serious violations including lack of machine guarding, failing to provide fall protection, and using a damaged electrical panel box. OSHA cited the company twice before for similar hazards.
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.
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The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited two contractors after an employee suffered severe burns.
OSHA inspected Rock Springs, Wyoming-based Coleman Construction Inc. after an employee suffered third-degree burns when compressed oxygen inside an underground duct caused a fire in May. The subcontractor was cited for “failing to provide mechanical ventilation or an underground air monitoring system and failing to report the hospitalization of the burned employee in a timely manner,” OSHA said in a statement on Wednesday. The agency proposed penalties of $189,762.
In addition, Billings, Montana-based general contractor JTL Group, which does business as Knife River, was cited for not ensuring that safety precautions were taken at the worksite and is facing proposed penalties of $59,754, according to the statement.
“Confined workspaces pose an immediate and substantial danger to workers,” Arthur Hazen, Billings, Montana-based OSHA area director, said in a statement. “It is vitally important that employers properly identify, test, control and ventilate the atmosphere to ensure the safety of workers in confined spaces.”
Representatives for Coleman Construction and JTL Group could not immediately be reached for comment.