The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Bacardi Bottling Corp. with 12 alleged safety violations after Lawrence Daquan Davis, a 21-year-old temporary worker, was killed by a palletizer machine during his first day of work at the company's facility in Jacksonville, Fla.
"A worker's first day at work shouldn't be his last day on earth," says Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. "Employers are responsible for ensuring the safe conditions of all their employees, including those who are temporary."
As required by OSHA, employers must protect the health and safety of each worker under their supervision and control. When Davis was cleaning glass underneath the hoist of the palletizing machine, another employer restarted the palletizer, which crushed Davis. According to OSHA, Bacardi Bottling did not train temporary employees on using locks and tags to prevent the accidental start-up of machines and failed to ensure its employees followed procedures to lock or tag out machines.
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OSHA has issued two willful citations for not developing, documenting, and using lockout and tagout procedures for the control of potentially hazardous energy as well as failing to train temporary workers on lockout and tagout procedures. A willful violation is defined as intentionally knowing or voluntarily disregarding the law's requirements or practicing indifference to worker safety and health.
"We are seeing untrained workers — many of them temporary workers — killed very soon after starting a new job," Michaels says. "This must stop. Employers must train all employees, including temporary workers, on the hazards specific to that workplace — before they start working. Had Bacardi done so, this tragic loss of life could have been prevented."
OSHA also cited Bacardi Bottling for nine serious violations and one other-than-serious violation. The proposed penalties for the willful and serious violations come to $192,000.
According to a statement from Bacardi Bottling, the company has addressed or put in place plans to resolve all safety and health matters identified by OSHA.
"Bacardi takes seriously any accident and continues to extend its sincerest condolences to the family," the statement says. "Always looking to improve in safety measures and operational performance, Bacardi conducted additional employee re-training on lockout/tagout procedures, safety policies and procedures, and completed a thorough review of all equipment in order to prevent such an accident from happening again."
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