The Atlanta Journal Constitution cited for repeatedly exposing workers to amputation, electrocution and other workplace hazards

Employer name: Cox Enterprises Inc. doing business as The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Inspection site: 6455 Best Friend Road, Norcross, Georgia 30071

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the employer on July 30. The inspection was initiated on March 12, 2015, as part of the agency's National Emphasis Program on Amputations.

Inspection findings: OSHA cited the employer for one repeated and five serious safety violations. The repeated citation was issued for exposing workers to amputations and being entangled in machinery that lacked safety guards. The serious violations involve failing to develop and utilize procedures to prevent machinery from starting up during maintenance and servicing and exposing workers to live electrical wiring. The newspaper company was previously cited for a similar violation in 2011.

Quote: "A lack of safety mechanisms continues to be one of the most frequently cited violations and that is unacceptable," said William Fulcher, OSHA's director of the Atlanta-East Area Office. "Management needs to take immediate action to remove these hazards from the workplace."

Proposed penalties: $65,550

The citations can be viewed at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/OSHA20151446fs.pdf

Cox Enterprises prints, processes and distributes The Atlanta Journal Constitution. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, losses of an eye, 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 Atlanta-East Area Office at 770-493-6644.