Republic Steel, a subsidiary of Mexico-based steelmaker Grupo Simec, was cited and will be fined by the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for serious safety violations.
OSHA said the Grupo Simec subsidiary did not install adequate machine guarding, implement lockout or tagout measures, and failed to train its workers on safety procedures, exposing the employees to amputation hazards.
OSHA said it cited Republic Steel for one repeat, seven serious and three other-than-serious safety violations. The US authority proposed $220,399 in penalties and put the company on its “Severe Violator Enforcement Program.”
The subsidiary of Grupo Simec had already been cited for similar machine hazards in 2017.
“Republic Steel is well aware of their responsibility to ensure safety procedures are followed, yet once again, they’ve failed to do so,” OSHA said in a statement.