Back in March, we told you about the tragic fate of Eleazar Torres-Gomez, a worker at a Cintas laundry facility in Tulsa who was dragged to his death inside an industrial dryer. The following month, Mr. Torres-Gomez's son Emmanuel came to Washington and laid the blame for his father's death squarely at the feet of Cintas, for their failure to provide a safe workplace:
In 2005, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Cintas for not putting guards on a dryer at a laundry in New York. The equipment that was unguarded in that case was similar to the equipment involved in my father’s death. If the company had added the guards, which it knew was required by OSHA, my father would be alive today...
My father’s death was preventable.
Today, OSHA agreed:
The Cintas Corp. is facing the largest fine ever for safety violations in the service sector after the horrific death of employee Eleazar Torres Gomez. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the Ohio-based uniform company for not providing the required lifesaving protections at its laundries in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Mr. Torres Gomez was killed, and in Columbus, Ohio...
In a historic citation, OSHA has proposed a penalty of $2.78 million for violations in Cintas’s Tulsa facility. This fine is more than four times larger than the previous largest penalty in the service sector for health and safety violations. Safety inspectors reported 46 illegal hazards in the Tulsa laundry—including 42 “willful” violations. At least one citation was for not protecting workers from the equipment involved in Mr. Torres Gomez’s death. Willful violations are committed with “intentional disregard” for the law or “plain indifference” to worker safety.
UPDATE: Reaction to the citation from Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee:
Members of the House Education and Labor Committee today said that they were encouraged by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s serious response to the March 6, 2007 death of Eleazar Torres-Gomez at a Cintas uniform laundry facility.
“The citations against Cintas are strong first steps to make sure the company complies with basic worker protections throughout its operations," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. “This should be a wake-up call for Cintas that worker safety is not a secondary concern. I encourage OSHA to follow up on this investigation and ensure that all laundry facilities eliminate this hazard where similar equipment is used."
UPDATE (August 20, 2007): OSHA's statement is out:
"Plant management at the Cintas Tulsa laundry facility ignored safety and health rules that could have prevented the death of this employee," said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Edwin G. Foulke Jr.
Forty-two willful, instance-by-instance citations allege violations of the OSHA lockout/tagout standard for the failures to shut down and to lock out power to the equipment before clearing jams, and to train four employees responsible to clear jams that lockout/tagout applies and how to perform the operations...
A willful violation is one committed with intentional disregard of the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act or plain indifference to employee safety or health.
Intentional disregard or plain indifference.