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August 22, 2007

Cintas Hit With Million Dollar OSHA Fine

Cintas_logo Plan Sponsor.com reported yesterday in its NewsDash that Cintas Corp., the uniform company, has been hit with a large OSHA fine because of the workplace death of a laundry worker.  Cintas plans to challenge the fine:

Cintas Corp. said it plans to challenge the $2.78 million penalty handed to it by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after the regulator pinned the uniform supplier with 42 willful safety violations, Business Insurance reported. OSHA found the violations in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, laundry facility where a worker was killed in March when he fell into an operating industrial dryer while trying to clear a conveyor belt that was wedged with wet laundry. A subsequent inspection led to 42 citations against the company - and one of the largest penalties ever imposed by OSHA, which also cited Cintas for failing to train four employees responsible for clearing jams.

You can read more about this story here (free registration required).

If the safety violations are upheld on appeal, the only remaining question for me is whether the corporation will be held criminally accountable for this misconduct.

PS

August 22, 2007 in Workplace Safety | Permalink

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Comments

Nicely written article. I take an interest in this because my business depends on it. The process and financial impact on protecting workers from these accidents ever happening in the first place is so minimal. When a company invests in safety, they are investing in the furture, and the rewards will be lower premiums on workman's comp. Steve

Posted by: Steve Rushing | Nov 8, 2007 4:12:42 PM

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