ARCHBOLD WEATHER

Napoleon/Lynx Hit With More Than $500,000 In OSHA Penalties




Napoleon/Lynx, maker of components for garage doors, has been hit with over $500,000 in penalties handed down by the federal government Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

Rhonda Burke, deputy director of public affairs for OSHA Region 5, which includes Ohio, said the company has chosen to contest the citations.

Burke said the citations will go to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration Review Committee for an independent review.

The committee can side with OSHA, the company, or work out a settlement agreement between the two sides.

Burke said it could take months for the committee to complete its review.

If the company still chooses to contest the issue, Burke said the case will go before an administrative law judge.

Citations

Based on inspections that took place between Sept. 27, 2016, and March 27, 2017, the company was issued eight citations.

Four violations were considered serious by OSHA.

Information from the OSHA web page states, “a serious violation exists when the workplace hazard could cause an accident or illness that would most likely result in death or serious physical harm, unless the employer did not know or could not have known of the violation.”

The serious violations involved unsafe handling of high-voltage electrical components, machines that were not properly guarded, and failure to properly supervise machine controls.

The maximum penalty for a serious violation is $12,675.

Citations are broken into individual items, which spell out specific reasons for penalties.

For example, in one item, Napoleon/Lynx was cited for failure to ensure that guards be placed on a hinge machine to prevent pinch-point hazards.

Proposed penalties for serious violations ranged from $8,963 to $12,548.

Repeat citations are for cases where a company has been cited previously for the same “or substantially similar condition, and, for a serious violation, OSHA regionwide inspection history of the agency lists a previous OSHA notice issued in the last five years.”

There were two repeat citations against Napoleon/ Lynx in the latest OSHA documents that refer to a previous finding in November 2013.

One citation was for failure to ensure that forklift drivers are evaluated for their driving performance every three years.

The other involved failure to follow proper lock-out/tagout procedures to make sure a particular piece of equipment was turned off before employees began working on it.

The maximum penalty for repeat violations is $126,749.

Fines proposed against Napoleon/Lynx ranged from $17,927 to $25,097.

Willful

A willful violation is defined as “a violation in which the employer either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard), or acted with plain indifference to employee safety.”

Like a repeat violation, the maximum penalty for a willful violation is $125,749.

OSHA issued two willful violations against Napoleon/ Lynx.

In one case, on or about Nov. 7, 2016, a hinge machine was not locked out prior to employees troubleshooting or unjamming. This exposed employees to amputation injuries.

The proposed penalty for that case was $125,482.

In the other case, on or about Oct. 26, 2016, pointof operation safety devices were not used while employees were loading or unloading parts from a press.

Two-hand control devices were not used to protect all employees working on the machine.

In that incident, workers were exposed to amputation injuries.

The proposed penalty for that case is also $125,482.

All told, the total fines proposed by OSHA are $515,710.

History

In the Oct. 30, 2013, issue of this newspaper, an article appeared announcing Napoleon/ Lynx had been hit with $147,600 in proposed penalties.

In that incident, there was a willful violation for failure to place guards over two mechanical power presses.

There were 15 serious violations including failure to train workers in certain safety procedures, failure to install guards on equipment, failure to provide training, and failure to evaluate the operation of powered industrial trucks. There were also issues with electrical circuits.

Napoleon/Lynx traces its roots to Napoleon Spring Works, an Archbold company.

Napoleon Spring Works was acquired by Lynx, a Canadian manufacturer of garage door components.

OSHA documents refer to the Archbold location by its old name, Napoleon Spring Works.

When contacted Monday, a representative said Napoleon/ Lynx officials are not commenting on the citations.



Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *