Mere months after two employees were injured by dangerous machines, Burrows Paper Corp. of Franklin, Ohio again put workers at risk. Acting on a complaint, OSHA found workers unjamming and servicing machines without proper safeguards during an Aug. 25, 2014, inspection. This is the fourth time in the past year that Burrows has been cited for hazards at its Franklin food box manufacturing facility.

OSHA has proposed fines of $122,500 for two repeated and two serious violations and placed the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program for failing to correct safety deficiencies.

“Frustrating and inexcusable”

"How long will it take before Burrows Paper begins to value the safety and health of its employees? Injuries caused by these machines often end in disfigurement, disability or death, yet this company continuously fails to fix those problems," said Bill Wilkerson, OSHA's area director in Cincinnati. "This is frustrating and inexcusable, and we promise that we'll keep coming back until Burrows Paper learns that safety is nonnegotiable."

OSHA's most recent inspection found that Burrows Paper had not developed procedures to ensure that the die- cutting machine and paper-sorting machine would not unintentionally operate during servicing or maintenance, a procedure known as lockout/tagout.

Back in July…

In July 2014, OSHA cited the company after two employees were injured in separate incidents. One of those injuries also involved machine hazards. OSHA issues repeated violations if an employer was previously cited for the same or a similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years.

Two serious violations address Burrows Paper's failure to verify the effectiveness of energy isolating procedures on the paper-sorting and die-cutting machines.