Complaint leads OSHA to cite Fort Worth steel fabricator with 11 violations

Employer name: Structural & Steel Products Manufacturing Ltd.

Inspection site: 3001 West Pafford St., Fort Worth, Texas

Citations issued: May 10, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration began an inspection Nov. 19, 2015, after receiving a complaint about unsafe working conditions at Structural & Steel Products Manufacturing Ltd. Investigators with the Fort Worth Area Office responded and found 11 serious violations including:  

• Having unrated, unstamped and uninspected spreader bar.
• Failing to ensure an overhead crane had rail stop bumpers installed.
• Allowing exposed wiring at the pendant controls
• Not ensuring that overhead crane pendant control functions were identified and legible.
• Failing to conduct monthly hook inspections, and failing to ensure certification records for the hooks were performed and maintained.
• Failing to tag alloy steel slings used with the appropriate identification.
• Failing to remove damaged synthetic web slings.
• Allowing missing barrier guards on a press and winch.
• Having damaged cables and the insulated sheathing pulled away on welding machines.
• Having unused openings to the electrical boxes.
• Lacking strain-relief mechanisms on electrical extension cords.

Proposed Penalties: $40,458

Quote: “The violations we found at Structural & Steel Products Manufacturing demonstrate the company’s lax attitude toward protecting workers who move heavy steel from serious injury,” said Jack Rector, OSHA’s area director in Fort Worth. “A company of this size has the ability and resources to do what’s necessary to protect their employees from these types of hazards, but is failing in its responsibility.”

Link to the citations: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/StructuralandSteelProductsMfgLtd_1107143.pdf.

Information: Structural & Steel Products has two manufacturing facilities in the Fort Worth area with 160 workers who fabricate a wide variety of steel products. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its 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 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 Fort Worth Area Office at 817-581-7303.