Dive Brief:
- Manufacturer Hailiang Copper Texas faces $253,750 in proposed penalties after two federal workplace safety investigations found dangerous working conditions at its Sealy, Texas, facility, the Department of Labor announced late last month.
- An investigation in March found that an employee suffered a partial arm amputation while clearing debris during copper alloy production, according to the department’s release. In May, a separate inspection led to almost $16k in fines for respiratory protection issues.
- Hailiang Copper Texas has previously faced OSHA citations, receiving five violations in March 2023 for issues such as lacking a first aid-trained employee and not having an emergency action plan in place.
Dive Insight:
The copper manufacturer failed to install required machine guards and energy control devices, exposing workers to dangerous contact with moving parts, according to the recent DOL report. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company for 24 serious safety and health violations, including lack of machine guards, failure to develop energy control procedures, inadequate hazard communication and failure to provide respirators.
Machine guarding and control of hazardous energy, i.e. lockout and tagout standards, are some of the top OSHA citations and ones that cause the most fatalities, according to the agency.
“OSHA is required to follow up on every employee complaint, be it in person or by writing,” Shannon Dennis, the National Account Manager at Safety Consultants USA, said during a recent Women in Manufacturing conference.
In addition to lacking required machine guards, inspectors found that Hailiang Copper did not develop energy control procedures, failed to mark tags or slings on cranes, did not provide and implement a written hazard communications program, failed to provide respirators and exposed workers wearing thermal-resistant, aluminized heat reflective suits to potential indoor heat illness hazards.
Training is key to preventing these types of incidents, Dennis said.
“I always tell people the way you stay out of trouble with OSHA is you train your employees,” Dennis said during the conference. “That's the documentation that's going to help you get out of citations. If an employee is negligent in something that they do and they cause their own injury, if you can show that they were trained, show that you used a piece of equipment that has been maintained properly and that you are inspecting it, then you're going to be in good shape should that happen.”
Hailiang Copper Texas Inc. is a subsidiary of China Hailiang Group, one of the world’s largest producers of copper and copper alloy products and based in China’s Zhejiang province, according to the Department of Labor release.
The Sealy site mainly produces industrial and pancake pipes for the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry, as well as some small-calibre waterways for the construction industry. It was designed to have a production capacity of 100,000 tons, according to its parent company in a 2018 press release.
China Hailiang Group has more than 20,000 workers and covers 80 subordinate enterprises, including the one in Sealy.
Hailiang Copper Texas has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s findings, request an informal meeting or contest the findings.
Other manufacturers have been investigated by OSHA this year for violating similar safety violations, such as exposing workers to respiratory hazards.
SK Battery America was cited for a second time at its Commerce, Georgia, facility in April for exposing 13 workers to breathing hazards when a lithium battery fire occurred at the plant. In June, Stanley Black and Decker was fined $222K for failing to provide employees at its Ohio facility with the required personal protective equipment.
