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OSHA Fines Cintas $196,000 for Safety Violations

November 6th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

OSHA, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration, has proposed $196,000 in penalties against Cintas for 15 safety violations following an inspection of the Mobile, Alabama plant.
OSHA came down especially hard on Cintas because some of the violations are the same as safety hazards that lead to a fatal accident at its Tulsa, Oklahoma plant. That accident lead to a number of inspections and fines totaling $2.78 million.
“As a large, national employer with a history of OSHA inspections and citations for hazards at other facilities, we are disappointed to find so many of the same or similar hazards at this facility,” said Ken Atha, OSHA area director in Mobile. “OSHA will take aggressive action when employers show indifference to the safety and health of their employees.”

Among the most recent violations are four with penalties of $112,500 for failing to:

Develop proper energy control procedures
Protect employees from electrical shocks
Provide adequate machine guards
Introduce proper machine lockout/tagout procedure

OSHA makes a point of saying that these violations are “substantially similar to those discovered in other Cintas facilities” including those in New York in 2004 and 2005.

Cintas is one of the world’s largest suppliers of uniforms. More than 5 million people go to work each day in the company’s uniforms. The company also has extensive contracts to launder and supply uniforms for a variety of industries, from healthcare to prisons. The violations have taken place at the company’s commercial laundry facilities.

In addition, the agency has proposed a “willful” violation with a penalty of $55,000 for a potential fall hazard for employees who periodically unjammed a conveyor belt. Eight “serious” violations have been proposed totaling penalties of $27,500. These include pits and floor holes with no guard rails, damaged electrical conduit, and blocked electrical panels. Inspectors also found electrical receptacles in damp or wet locations, and a broken emergency stop button.

Additional violations cited include failing to record a work-related injury, and partially blocking an emergency exit.

Over the past three years, Cintas has had approximately 36 inspections at various facilities by federal and state OSHA programs. Citations for safety violations were issued in August at Cintas plants in Tulsa, Okla., following a fatal accident, with a total proposed penalty of $2,782,000, and in Columbus, Ohio, with a total penalty of $117,500.

In March, an employee was clearing a jam at the Cintas laundry facility. In trying to dislodge wet laundry on a conveyor that carried it from the washer to the dryer, the employee was snared and carried into the high-temperature industrial dryer. He died of the injuries sustained before coworkers could stop the machine and pull him out.

Cintas is the largest uniform supplier in North America, supplying millions of uniforms per year. The company provides clothing for all types of workers, from auto mechanics to hotel doormen. It has more than 400 facilities nationwide, employing more than 34,000 workers. Those facilities include 11 manufacturing plants and 7 distribution centers. In addition to selling uniforms, Cintas also provides uniform laundry services for a number of large companies.

For the year ending June 2007, Cintas reported $3.71 billion in sales, with a net profit of $334.5 million.

Following the fatal accident at the Tulsa plant, OSHA, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration, launched inspections in Cintas plants in Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas, Ohio and Washington. The inspections showed a number of serious violations, including failure to shut down the industrial dryers when employees were clearing jams. Another citation states that the employer repeatedly failed to protect workers from being “struck or pinned by the conveyor.” The company also neglected to implement lockout/tagout procedures, which would have prevented the industrial dryers from being turned back on with an employee inside.

In all, OSHA found 42 violations in past inspections at the Cintas plants, including willful, serious and repeat violations. Willful violations occur when the employer intentionally disregards worker safety and health. Serious violations are those that have the potential to cause serious injury or death.

“Plant management at the Cintas Tulsa laundry facility ignored safety and health rules that could have prevented the death of this employee,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr.

As always, the company has 15 working days from receipt of the citations to contest them and the proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.