OSHA Reaches Settlement with Republic to Include Additional Safety Measures, Training at Mills
04/13/2012 - The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with Republic Steel Inc. resolving citations issued by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in May 2011 for violations found at the company's facility in Lorain, Ohio.
The U.S. Department of Labor has reached a settlement agreement with Canton, Ohio-based Republic Steel Inc. resolving citations issued by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in May 2011 for violations found at the company's facility in Lorain.
Republic Steel, formally known as Republic Engineered Products Inc., will pay $235,000 in fines, hire full-time health and safety managers, and improve safety training for workers at its steel mills in federal OSHA's jurisdiction. In addition to the Lorain mill, three other facilities are located in Canton and Massillon, Ohio, and Blasdell, N.Y.
The safety and health managers to be hired at each mill will have the authority to suspend work until a safety or health issue has been abated without having to refer the matter to the mill's manager or other supervisors. Each safety and health manager will make a bimonthly, random safety inspection of the mill, as well as a quarterly inspection at another one of the company's mills.
A Joint Safety Committee also will be established to audit inspections and develop best safety practices, and will meet on a monthly basis. Additionally, the company will post in-plant safety bulletins, create a quarterly newsletter, implement a system for employees to notify management anonymously of health and safety concerns, and allow union safety coordinators with the United Steel Workers to have increased access to the company's hourly workforce.
Increased and improved training for workers will include training by a third-party consultant on fall protection and lockout/tagout procedures, training designed for contractors, and a 10-hour health and safety training program specific to Republic Steel's operations that will be developed within 12 months of the settlement. Additionally, the company will pay attendance fees for safety coordinators and joint safety committee members to participate in the United Steel Workers training conference.
Specific, additional abatement measures Republic Steel agreed to take at the Lorain mill include providing a two-hour lockout/tagout training program to all affected employees, conducting a fall hazard audit and developing a fall protection abatement plan.
OSHA began its inspection of the facility in November 2010 upon learning that a worker had been hospitalized with a broken pelvis after falling 9 feet from a coil transfer car in the bar mill. OSHA cited seven willful and three repeat safety violations for the company's failure to protect workers from fall hazards and implement adequate energy source lockout/tagout procedures for hazardous equipment. The settlement affirms citations for three willful violations of fall protection standards and three repeat violations of lockout/tagout standards.
