OSHA proposes nearly $2 million penalty against Cincinnati meat processing plant

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is proposing a $1.9 million penalty on a Cincinnati meat processing plant, accusing it of ignoring worker safety standards. The processing plant has had a history of safety violations, and in 2017 OSHA added the company to its severe violator enforcement program.

The penalty comes after a serious accident last October when a 29-year-old temporary worker, who’d been there nine months, fell inside a moving industrial blender while cleaning it. His leg had to be amputated.

After an investigation, OSHA determined the company, Netherlands-based Zwanenberg Food Group USA, had not trained sanitation workers on how to properly shutdown and lock equipment prior to cleaning, exposing them to moving machine parts.

"This young man suffered a preventable debilitating injury because his employer failed to train him and the majority of its third-shift sanitation workers adequately to lockout equipment to ensure their own safety," OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan said in a statement.