July 5, 2016

OSHA fines landscaping products manufacturer $66K for repeat,
serious violations after complaints of unsafe working conditions

Employer's name: L&M Bag and Supply Company Inc., doing business as L&M Supply Company Inc.

Worksite location: 126 Texas Avenue, San Marcos, Texas 78666

Citations issued: July 5, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Austin, Texas, cited L&M Supply Company Inc. for 13 serious, one repeat and one other violation. The inspection was initiated March 24, 2016, following a complaint alleging unsafe working conditions and allegations that the company did not report two incidents to OSHA involving injuries including an in-patient hospitalization of an employee whose arm became caught in a machine. The repeat citation was issued for failing to guard machinery. OSHA cited the company for the same violation in 2011 at its Willacoochee, Georgia, facility.

Serious violations include failing to:

• Provide emergency shut off buttons on machines.
• Develop and implement a lockout/tagout program.
• Provide training to employees operating forklifts and other forklift-related issues.
• Guard rotating parts, chains and sprockets on machines.
• Ensure that electrical outlets and boxes were mounted.
• Label breaker panels to indicate each circuit's purpose.
• Report the in-patient hospitalization of an employee to OSHA within 24 hours.

Proposed Penalties: $66,600

Quote: "Unguarded moving machine parts cause serious injuries to workers every year," said R. Casey Perkins, OSHA's area director in Austin. "L&M Supply Company needs to immediately put guards on every machine part that can cause injury, and report any injury requiring hospitalization to OSHA within 24 hours."

View citations at: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/LMBagandSupplyCompanyInc_1134777_0705_16.pdf

Information: Based in Willacoochee, Georgia, L&M Supply Company manufactures geotextiles, silt fence, landscaping & erosion control products. It has manufacturing facilities in Douglas and Pearson, Georgia, and branch offices in Denver; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Louisville, Kentucky; San Marcos, Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina. The company has 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 office at 512-374-0271.

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Media Contact:

Juan J. Rodríguez, 972-850-4709, rodriguez.juan@dol.gov

Release Number: 16-1405-DAL

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