Benefits August 20, 2007

Cintas To Refute OHSA's Safety Violation Claims

August 20, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Cintas Corp. said it plans to challenge the $2.78-million penalty handed to it by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) after the regulator pinned the uniform supplier with 42 willful safety violations, Business Insurance reported.
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OSHA found the violations in the Tulsa, Oklahoma laundry facility where a worker was killed in March when he fell into an operating industrial dryer while trying to clear a conveyor belt that was wedged with wet laundry.

An inspection afterEleazar Torres Gomez’s death let to 42 citations against the company and the largest penalty made by the regulator. OSHA also cited Cintas for failing to train four employees responsible for clearing jams.

According to a press releasefrom Cintas Chief Executive Officer Scott Farmer, the company disagrees with the OSHA report and plans to look into the allegations.

“We have purposefully created strong policies and procedures, demonstrated by a safety record that is 20% to 30% better than comparably-sized laundry facilities,” Farmer said in the press release. “We have created an executive safety advisory council, which is getting input from national safety experts – including a former head of OSHA – to help identify additional areas of continual improvement. As I’ve noted many times before, there is nothing more important than our employees’ safety.”

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