Citations against heating cable systems maker vacated
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An administrative law judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission vacated citations against a manufacturer of heating cable systems after determining that the U.S. Department of Labor failed to prove the alleged violations.
Appleton GRP L.LC., doing business as Appleton Group, operates a facility in East Granby, Connecticut, where it manufactures systems designed to prevent ice from forming on roofs and in pipes, according to commission documents. On Jan. 28, 2016, an unidentified person contacted the Hartford, Connecticut, area office of the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration to complain that emergency stops at the facility on an extruding line were not functioning and that employees who tested heating cables were being exposed to electrical hazards. An OSHA compliance safety and health officer inspected the facility on three separate days in February and March 2016, with the agency issuing two citations and proposing penalties totaling $11,500, which the company contested.
But the administrative law judge vacated the citations and proposed penalties after determining the department had not met its burden of proof. For example, the company was alleged to have violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s general duty clause because of the non-working emergency stop, but the law judge ruled the department failed to prove that the hazard was recognized by the company or the industry or that the hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical injury – two necessary elements of a general duty clause violation.
The law judge’s decision became a final order of the commission on Wednesday.
An attorney for the company could not immediately comment on the ruling.
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