JENKINTOWN PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEYS

After several months of investigating Pittsburgh’s Tsudis Chocolate Co. Inc., the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has uncovered 19 alleged safety violations that total $87,260.

The investigation began in February after a machine inadvertently started and caused crushing injuries to an employee’s right hand and wrist. The inspection was prompted based on OSHA’s Emphasis Program on Amputations. This allowed them to uncover 18 more serious violations in the Pittsburgh-based plant.

The violations range in severity with 12 being labeled as “serious.” These serious violations carry a $59,400 penalty and were the result of the following:

• Failing to address electrical hazards
• Failing to create energy control procedures for equipment.
• Failure to conduct a periodic inspection of the energy control procedures (minimum is at least annually).
• Failure to provide training to authorized employees on the applicable energy sources in the facility.

Three additional violations were the result of repeat violations that were cited back in 2011. Repeat violations occur when employers have been cited for the same or similar violation within the past five years. These three violations included failure to properly guard points of operation on machinery; failure to provide electrical protective equipment when employees worked on energized electrical parts; and failure to ensure that hazardous chemicals were properly marked. These violations cost the Tsudis Chocolate Co. an additional $27,860.

Four other “other-than-serious violations” were cited to round out the total tally to 19 violations. These violations are issued when a violation has a direct relationship to worker safety and health, but may not cause serious injury or a fatality.

OSHA gives 15 days for Tsudis Chocolate Co. to respond to the violations. Their options are to immediately comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s Pittsburgh director or contest the citations.

The Pennsylvania workers’ compensation law firm of Mednick, Mezyk & Kredo hopes that attention to these types of citations will help to provide safe work environments for all Pennsylvanians.