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U.S. Department of Labor | May 11, 2015
MONTGOMERYVILLE, Pa. – Lloyd Industries Inc.
manufacturers the ventilation, duct and fire safety products used at places
like New York’s Chrysler Building, Philadelphia International Airport, and the stadiums
the New York Yankees and Baltimore Ravens call home.
In the last 15 years, the people who work for this southeastern
Pennsylvania manufacturer have been left to worry about returning home with a
workplace injury as Lloyd Industries allows them to operate machines without
protection from dangerous moving parts, and exposes them to hazardous noise
levels without yearly tests to protect their hearing.
Since
2000, Lloyd has shown a pattern of defiance toward OSHA safety standards.
In one instance, OSHA officials were forced to summon U.S. federal marshals
to gain entrance when Lloyd refused to admit them, even after they obtained
a warrant.
Despite numerous federal inspections, warnings, fines and
promises to stop putting workers at risk,
the company’s repeated failure to keep its employees safe has resulted in
approximately 40 serious injuries since 2000. These injuries include serious
lacerations as well as crushed, fractured, dislocated and amputated
fingers.
After an inspection prompted by a gruesome injury in July
2014, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health
Administration levied $822,000 in fines against Lloyd Industries Inc. bringing
the company’s total OSHA fines to more than $1 million since 2000. OSHA has also
placed the company in its Severe
Violator Enforcement Program.
“William Lloyd and Lloyd Industries are serial violators of
OSHA safety standards, and their workers have paid the price,” said Assistant
Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “No
employer is above the law. For 15 years, they have repeatedly put their
employees at risk of serious injuries. This must stop now.”
In the July incident, the die on a press brake machine dropped
on a worker’s right hand, resulting in the amputation of three fingers. The
machine lacked required safety guards and had not worked properly before the
incident – a fact of which the owner was aware.
Since 2000, William Lloyd has shown a pattern of defiance
toward OSHA safety standards: Inspectors find violations, including the absence
of safety guards to prevent serious injuries from moving machine parts. Lloyd
then agrees to correct the hazardous conditions and accepts OSHA penalties, but
similar violations are found when the inspectors return. In one instance, OSHA
officials were forced to summon U.S. federal marshals to gain entrance to the
plant when Lloyd refused to admit them, even after they obtained a warrant.
During one inspection, Lloyd complained to OSHA inspectors
that the machine guards that protected his employees slowed production. He also
made a conscious decision in 2013 to stop an audiometric
testing program required to prevent employee hearing loss, OSHA found.
The testing only resumed in December 2014, after OSHA’s investigation.
In its latest inspection OSHA issued 10 willful violations
based on the company’s repeated failure to guard machines, and to provide
annual audiometric tests. Additionally, the company was cited for three
willful, four serious, and seven other-than-serious violations for electrical
hazards, noise protection, and recordkeeping violations. Read the citations, here
and here.
Incorporated in 1981, Lloyd Industries Inc. manufactures
fire and smoke dampers. It employs approximately 70 workers at its
Montgomeryville site and 25 employees at a second location in Orange Park,
Florida. The firm’s workers’ compensation insurer is AmeriHealth Casualty
Services in Philadelphia. 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.
Each year, more than 200,000 American workers suffer cuts,
lacerations and amputations from operating parts of dangerous machinery.
Investigators often find various upsetters, power press brakes and forging
machines used in the plant lack adequate safety mechanisms. Machine
hazards continue to be among the most
frequently cited by OSHA.
To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance; file a
complaint or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing
imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at
800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Allentown Area Office at 267-429-7542.
Under the Occupational Safety and
Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and
healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these
conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing
standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more
information, visit http://www.osha.gov.
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Media Contacts:
Joanna
Hawkins, 215-861-5101, hawkins.joanna@dol.gov
Leni Fortson, 215-861-5102, uddyback-fortson.lenore@dol.gov
Release
Number: 15-911-PHI
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