Issue link: http://palletcentral.uberflip.com/i/1311385
36 PalletCentral • November-December 2020 palletcentral.com officials that they had not experienced or heard of any incidents involving employees bumping into each other in the manner that OSHA suggested since the plant opened in 1990. The citation that OSHA issued to Dover High Performance Plastics was issued as a willful violation. The Administrative Law Judge upheld the willful characterization, based on the company having received a prior machine guarding citation in 2007, and because after the 2012 accident involving the lathe operator, the company did not require the machine doors to be closed during operation but only required the operator to manually start the production cycle. The Commission found that the company's actions, changing the machine programming from an automatic timed start to requiring a manual start, was "objectively reasonable" action to eliminate all exposure to the moving parts, and compliance did not require that the doors be closed during machine operation. Based on the company's actions (which occurred after the accident), the Commission recharacterized the citation for the lathe machine guarding from willful to serious. The new decisions will help pallet sector employers defend against unwarranted OSHA citations, but it is not a slam-dunk defense: effective worker training will be required (in a language and vocabulary that workers understand) and work rules must be adopted and enforced against unsafe acts, such as working on equipment before it is locked and tagged out, or removal of, or circumventing, installed guards. In some cases, equipment used in the pallet industry such as band saws and dismantling machinery cannot be effectively guarded at the point of operation, and so safe work practices must be established as well as backup with instructional decals and warning lines to keep body parts at least 12 inches away from the cutting edges. Manufacturers' instructions for guarding and maintenance should always be followed. Historically, NWPCA has worked cooperatively with OSHA on guarding and lockout/tagout matters, and more assistance for members will be offered in 2021on these key safety issues. Since 2009, Gary Visscher, Esq., has been of counsel with the Law Office of Adele L. Abrams PC, and has a long history in the occupational safety field, including serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA, a member of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and on the US Chemical Safety Board.