San Marcos, Texas, auto parts maker and staffing employer fined $43K by OSHA for heat, noise and other workplace hazards

Employers' names: Corvac Composites LLC and Priority Personnel Inc. in San Marcos, Texas

Citations issued: Sept. 30, 2015

Investigation findings: Corvac Composites was cited for six serious violations for failing to:

• Keep exit routes free from flammable objects.
• Establish an energy control program for shutting down machinery.
• Develop and implement hazard communication and hearing conservation programs.
• Provide a suitable eye and body wash facility for emergency use.
• Reduce or eliminate employee exposure to excessive heat.

Corvac received two other citations for failing to illuminate exit signs or post warning signs for electrical hazards. Priority Personnel, a staffing agency that provides temporary workers for Corvac, was cited for two serious violations for failing to develop and implement a hearing conservation program and reduce or eliminate exposure to excessive heat. The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated the July 2015 inspection at the Corvac Composites facility in San Marcos as the result of a complaint.

Proposed Penalties: Corvac Composites was fined $31,000 and Priority Personnel was fined $12,600.

Quote: "All workers, whether full-time or temporary, deserve a safe workplace," said R. Casey Perkins, OSHA's area director in Austin. "Heat and noise aren't just nuisances — at excessive levels they can cause serious, irreparable, or even fatal, harm to workers, and employers are required to provide protection."

Link to the citations:

• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/CorvacCompositesLLC_1078982.pdf
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/CorvacCompositesLLC_1080951.pdf
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/PriorityPersonnelInc_1094157.pdf

Information: Corvac Composites is headquartered in Kentwood, Michigan, and Priority Personnel is headquartered in San Marcos, Texas. Both companies have 15 business days from receipt of their citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director, or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, eye loss, 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 Austin Area Office at 512-374-0271. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.