A former Warren Industries employee’s report to OSHA that he’d been injured on the job resulted in an agency inspection of the company’s Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin facility – and some startling findings.

At that worksite, OSHA investigators found safety guards and interlocks were bypassed on three packing lines, allowing workers to come in contact with operating parts of machines which can cause injuries such as lacerations, fractures and amputation.

Christine Zortman, OSHA’s area director in Milwaukee, said Warren Industries disabled the safety guards in order to keep production moving.

Warren Industries began operations in 1973 as a contract packaging company doing handwork projects. Today, it’s one of the largest co-packing, packaging and mechanical binderies in the Midwest.

Proposed Penalties: $63,000 for one wilful safety violation.