A fatality at Custom Plastics Inc. has triggered a proposed $165,200 fine from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration for two willful and seven serious safety and health violations.
The fine, proposed July 6, marks the second time in 17 months that OSHA has fined Custom Plastics for violations at its factory in Elk Grove, Ill. - a facility OSHA has inspected five times in the past five years, said Brad Mitchell, an OSHA spokesman in Chicago. OSHA also fined the company's facility in Fargo, N.D., last year for machinery guarding violations and its site in Mishawaka, Ind., in December 2004 for violations of wiring and hazardous communication standards.
The company has until July 27 to respond to the charges.
Company executives did not return calls seeking comment.
According to OSHA, an employee was repairing a light while elevated by a forklift when he fell 12 feet to his death Jan. 10.
OSHA cited Custom Plastics for failure to provide a platform secured to the lifting carriage, or forks, of the forklift and for continuing to use forklifts that had holes drilled through forks. The firm had been cited for the same violations in February 2005.
OSHA also cited Custom Plastics for unsafe practices involving the repair of energized equipment, failure to provide a safe work platform during the repair of electrical equipment and failure to obtain written approval from manufacturers for forklift modifications.
In July 2005, OSHA reached an informal settlement with Custom Plastics, reducing an original fine of $49,350 for 19 serious violations and one other violation at the Elk Grove plant to $27,500, according to the agency.
Custom Plastics, an $8 million company, does custom injection molding and custom profile extrusion of thermoplastics for the automotive, appliance, electronic, lighting, office and home equipment industries.