OSHA responded to four separate reports of worker injuries at BWAY Corporation in Chicago, IL. After OSHA completed their investigations, BWAY was fined $503,380 for five repeated and five serious violations.

The repeat violations include failure to train employees on lockout/tagout procedures, and inadequate machine guarding. The five serious citations involve failing to lockout equipment prior to clearing jams and inadequate machine guarding on multiple pieces of equipment.

OSHA also placed the company in OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP). Enforcement actions in this program may include mandatory follow-up inspections; increased company/corporate awareness of OSHA enforcement; corporate-wide agreements, where appropriate; enhanced settlement provisions; and federal court enforcement under Section 11(b) of the OSH Act. Only those SVEP actions that are appropriate for the particular employer are taken.

Employers who are placed in this program are those who have demonstrated indifference to their OSH Act obligations by willful, repeated, or failure-to-abate violations.