Region 5 News Release: 13-1513-CHI
July 29, 2013
Contact: Scott Allen Rhonda Burke
Phone: 312-353-6976
Email: allen.scott@dol.gov burke.rhonda@dol.gov

US Department of Labor's OSHA fines Owen-Brockway Glass Container
$61,000 after citing 6 violations at Zanesville, Ohio, glass manufacturing plant

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Owens-Brockway Glass Container has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration with six safety violations carrying proposed penalties of $61,000 following a complaint inspection initiated in March. A repeat violation for a lack of signs marking exit directions was one violation.

"Owens-Brockway Glass Container has a responsibility to install properly working exit signs to protect workers on the job," said Deborah Zubaty, OSHA's area director in Columbus. "Employers who are cited for repeat violations demonstrate a lack of commitment to employee safety and health."

OSHA issues repeat violations if an employer previously was cited for the same or a similar violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. The same violation was cited at a facility in Atlanta in 2011.

Five serious violations were cited, including a lack of fall protection for workers on open-sided platforms; nonworking emergency lighting; failing to require the use of head protection for workers exposed to overhead hazards; lack of an emergency eyewashing station for exposure to corrosive materials; and the use of an electrical panel box that not was protected from water and damp conditions. An OSHA violation is considered serious if death or serious physical harm can result from a hazard an employer knew or should have known exists.

Owens-Brockway Glass Container, with headquarters in Perrysburg, produces glass containers for the food and beverage industry. In the past 20 years, the company's 19 plants have been inspected under the company names of Owens-Brockway Glass Container Inc., Owens Illinois Inc. and Owens-Illinois Glass Containers Inc.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and notice of proposed penalties to contest the citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. If the company does not file or contest within that period, it must abate the cited conditions within the period ordered in the citations and pay the proposed penalties.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Columbus Area Office at 614-469-5582.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.