The US Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission has assessed more than $1 million in fines against an Alabama auto parts manufacturer after a 20-year-old machine operator who had only worked at the plant for about three months died on the job in 2016.
In a decision published Thursday, the commission upheld penalties against Cusseta-based Joon LLC, doing business as Ajin USA, in the June 19, 2016, death, which occurred a day after the woman was seriously injured when a robotic arm hit her while she was trying to troubleshoot some faulty equipment.
The OHSA fined the company over 51 separate serious, willful and non-serious violations with total proposed penalties of $2,515,737.
The commission assessed $1
,072,498 in fines, while leaving a pending lawsuit and penalties.At the time of her death, the worker entered an enclosure containing robots and machinery and was attempting to fix a sensor failure on a piece of equipment that stopped without following proper lockout/tagout procedures designed to keep workers safe inside robot cells, according to OSHA.
While inside, one of the robots was energized and struck the woman, pinning her against another machine. She was taken to hospital and later died.
OSHA accused the company of knowing it was necessary to implement lockout/tagout procedures but failing to ensure that regulators and managers enforced such procedures.
The commission rejected a charge by the company that OSHA was being targeted because of “anti-Korean racial bias.”
In an earlier separate criminal proceeding, the company pleaded guilty to knowingly violating an OSHA standard that caused the death of an employee.
Source link
