Managers from Canton-based Timken Company are well acquainted with safety inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), with various company-run facilities having been inspected by agency regulators on 17 different occasions since 2007.
Timken is a manufacturer and marketer with global reach, having facilities in and selling product to customers across the globe. The company’s main business is making and selling mechanical components and high-performance steel for use in aeronautics, construction projects and other businesses.
Timken has been cited by OSHA for 27 safety violations in recent years. The most recent OSHA inspection, conducted at Timken’s Canton steel mill in June of this year, resulted last week in the company’s receipt of 12 “repeat” and “serious” citations for breach of safety rules.
The violations cover a lot of ground, ranging from cited infractions that raise the risk of falls on elevated platforms to an increased potential for electrical and burn injuries owing to electrical boxes being left unguarded and open.
Five of the violations were deemed “repeat,” meaning that Timken was previously cited for an identical or similar violation. Seven were termed “serious,” which OSHA defines as any unremedied hazard that an employer should reasonably know about and for which there is “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result.”
Collectively, the violations will cost Timken $170,500.
“They are unduly placing their workers at risk for illnesses and injuries,” said Howard Eberts, OSHA area director in Cleveland, “and that is unacceptable.”
Source: Norwalk Reflector, “Company fined $170,500 by OSHA for dozen safety violations at Ohio facility,” Dec. 16, 2012