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Diving certificate:
- The Ministry of Labor found that Dean Sausage Co.'s meat processing and packing plant in Atalla, Alabama, had repeatedly neglected safety standards during inspections over the past three years, resulting in employees being exposed to unsafe working conditions, the agency announced earlier this month .
- The latest allegations from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Dec. 3 include violations related to a July 2024 inspection that found inadequate machine safety procedures, a lack of employee training and missing electrical panel covers.
- Despite previous citations and fines totaling more than $109,000, similar dangers continued to exist at the facility, resulting in additional fines of $103,245 this year.
Insight into the dive:
The small sausage company had three repeat violations in July, including failing to implement and train employees in lockout procedures or provide a written hazard communication program for handling chemicals such as ammonia.
OSHA cited 2,538 violations of lockout and tagout procedures in fiscal year 2023, making it the sixth most frequently cited standard by the agency.
The new allegations found that Dean Sausage used power and lighting equipment in an unsafe manner and exposed his employees to hazards, electrocution, burns and hazardous chemicals that he struck or caught, the agency said.
In 2023, the authority found seven repeat and two serious violations during an inspection and ultimately imposed penalties Fine of $116,153 against the company.
According to its website, Dean Sausage has been producing sausage and frozen biscuit sandwich products for the southern U.S. market since 2023. The company employs 85 people at the Attalla location.
Dean Sausage has 15 business days from December 3 to respond to and pay the OSHA fines. The company did not immediately respond to Manufacturing Dive for comment.
The food sector overall had 61,400 cases of injury and illness in 2023at a rate of 3.6 cases per 100 full-time employees, down from 4.6 in 2022, according to a report from the DOL Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Dean Sausage joins other manufacturers who have committed repeat violations in recent times. In September, OSHA cited Hailiang Copper Texas $253,750 in proposed penalties after two federal workplace safety investigations found dangerous working conditions at its Sealy, Texas, plant.
In June, Wisconsin, pallet manufacturer Konz Wood Products was fined $177,453 after a 57-year-old worker was fatally struck by the carriage of a wood stacking machine. The agency's news release said OSHA cited the company with two repeat violations for failing to implement lockout and marking procedures and failing to provide fall protection when employees were working over dangerous machinery.