Ashley Furniture Industry Inc. has been fined $1.76M because its workers have gotten hurt in over 1,000 work-related injuries in the last three-and-a-half years. Following an incident last summer when one worker lost three fingers while operating a woodworking machine, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted a probe of the facility and found numerous willful, repeated, and serious safety violations.
The furniture company has also been put on the Severe Violator Enforcement Program for not addressing certain safety hazards. OSHA contends that Ashley Furniture purposely ignored the agency’s standards, as well as the company’s own safety manuals, to increase worker productivity levels. The company is accused of blaming workers for their injuries, which were actually caused by the unsafe working conditions created at Ashley Furniture.
OSHA said that the furniture maker did not act to protect workers from getting hurt by moving machine parts or prevent machines from unintentionally activating when machineries were being serviced. These kinds of violations can lead to permanent disability and death.
OSHA said Ashley Furniture did not properly train workers about safety procedures and the hazards that exist when servicing machinery. There were also inadequate drenching facilities for workers exposed to materials that were corrosive. Certain machines lacked readily-accessibly emergency-stop buttons, and electrical safety violations were committed.
Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation
It doesn’t matter who was at fault in causing your Boston work injury. Even if no one was at fault or you caused your own work accident, you are likely entitled to Massachusetts workers’ compensation benefits from your employer. This means that although you cannot sue your employer, you should get medical benefits, and, depending on the extent of your injuries: temporary total incapacity benefits, partial incapacity benefits, permanent loss of function and disfigurement benefits, or permanent and total capacity benefits. If your loved one was a worker who died in a work accident, you should be entitled to survivors’ benefits or dependents’ benefits.
OSHA fines Ashley Furniture $1.77 million, StarTribune, February 2, 2015
Ashley Furniture faces $1.76M in fines after OSHA finds more than 1,000 worker injuries at Wisconsin site in past 36 months, Department of Labor, February 2, 2015
Labor and Workforce Development, Mass.gov
Severe Violator Enforcement Program, OSHA
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New Rules Allow Frail Elders to Continue Residing in Massachusetts Assisted Living Facilities, Boston Injury Lawyer Blog, February 6, 2015