M&H Crates is an employee-owned pallet manufacturer based in Jacksonville, Texas. The company has been in business since 1968. While the company makes a wide range of pallets, it also has a history of workplace safety violations.
A U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection recently found that, despite receiving warnings and citations for more than 10 years, M&H continues exposing workers to amputation hazards.
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OSHA inspectors visited M&H Crates in February 2024 and found lockout/tagout violations similar to those in 2012, 2014, 2020 and 2022. As a result, the company faces $254,527 in fines.
The inspection in February 2022 came after OSHA received a complaint. Initially, the company faced about $249,000 in proposed penalties for some 13 violations, but that has been reduced to $149,000 as part of an informal settlement. However, according to OSHA, the case from 2022 remains open. Lockout/tagout is the most common OSHA infraction in the manufacturing industry.
In the May 2020 accident, an employee who worked for the company for 15 years was operating an 8-foot Morgan bandsaw when his index finger was amputated due to a lack of machine guarding.
OSHA Area Director Greg Wynn said, "M&H Crates continues to ignore its legal responsibility to comply with federal workplace safety standards." Wynn says OSHA will "use all measures available to us to hold this company accountable for its continued willingness to expose employees to serious dangers." IEN reached out to OSHA to see if the safety agency could shed a bit more light on what other levers it can pull, but they have not yet responded to our request for comment.
M&H has 15 business days after receiving the citations to comply, request an informal conference, or contest the findings.
IEN also reached out to M&H, but they, too, did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
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