Workplace faces $150K fine for alleged labor hazards where amputation occurred

LAWRENCE » A local packaging facility faces more than $150,000 in fines on allegations it failed to protect employees from machine servicing hazards.

BWAY Corporation, better known as Mauser Packaging Solutions, operated an unsafe workplace and placed untrained machine workers in harm’s way when an employee suffered an amputation last fall in Lawrence Township, authorities alleged Wednesday in a news release.

The bloody workplace injury occurred on Sept. 26, 2019, at Mauser’s industrial warehouse off Litho Road near Route 1, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, better known as OSHA.

Upon learning of the workplace incident, OSHA conducted an inspection of the industrial building and found “serious” and “repeat” violations, OSHA said.

On Oct. 4, 2019, “The employer failed to provide maintenance employees with training on machine specific procedures,” OSHA alleges in a 13-page citation and notification of penalty issued to Mauser on March 23.

The company had similar shortcomings on Sept. 26, 2019, when the worker suffered the amputation, according to OSHA. Furthermore, OSHA says the alleged violations at the Lawrence facility are similar to prior violations that Mauser accrued at other facilities across the United States.

For example, OSHA issued and affirmed a final order on Feb. 6, 2019, citing BWAY Corp. for exposing employees to machine hazards at a workplace in Chicago. BWAY Corp. also received prior citations in 2016 and 2017 for workplace violations in Ohio and Wisconsin similar to the September 2019 violations here in New Jersey, OSHA said.

OSHA found four noteworthy deficiencies at the Lawrence Township worksite:

• Authorized employees did not receive training in the recognition of applicable hazardous energy sources and energy isolation.

• A procedure was not utilized to afford the employees a level of protection equivalent to that provided by the implementation of a personal lockout or tagout device when servicing or maintenance was performed by a crew member.

• The employer did not conduct an annual inspection of the energy control procedure to ensure that the procedure and requirements of this important federal standard were followed.

• The established procedure for the application of energy control was not done in sequence as required by the Code of Federal Regulations, exposing employees to machine servicing hazards.

“Workers servicing or maintaining machines are at risk of serious injury, including amputations, if hazardous energy is not properly controlled,” Paula Dixon-Roderick, director of the OSHA Marlton Area Office, said Wednesday in a press statement regarding BWAY Corporation. “This company must correct the hazards identified to protect workers’ safety.”

Mauser Packaging Solutions must abate the alleged violations at the Litho Road worksite by April 16, according to the citation, but the company may contest the allegations and proposed financial penalties or request an informal conference seeking alternatives.

OSHA issued an invoice and debt collection notice showing Mauser faces $151,329 in penalties for the “serious” and “repeat” violations it cited.

The Trentonian could not reach a Mauser company official for comment. The newspaper attempted to reach company officials by telephone and email.