More than $50K in OSHA fines for Fort Worth steel fabricator

Employer name: K-T Galvanizing Company Inc.

Inspection site: 2500 Chambers Street, Venus, TX 76084

Citations issued: June 17, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration began an inspection Feb. 23, 2016, at K-T Galvanizing Company’s Venus facility as part of the Regional Emphasis Program for Fabricated Metals. Investigators with the Fort Worth Area Office found 13 serious violations as a result, including:  

• Not having a written hearing conservation program.
• Failing to conduct a hazard assessment.
• Not having a hazard communication program.
• Failing to evaluate permit required confined spaces.
• Not having safety latches on hooks.
• No functional seatbelts on forklifts.
• Forklift manufacturer name plates, safety decals were not legible.
• Forklift training was not conducted by a qualified person.
• Forklifts with safety issues were not taken out of service and repairs made before placing them back into service.
• Forklifts were not inspected for safety before using them.
• Not having work rest and tongue guard on a bench grinder.
• Several electrical violations.

Proposed Penalties: $53,200

Quote: “K-T Galvanizing’s loose attitude toward safety exposed employees to known hazardous conditions,” said Jack A. Rector, OSHA’s Area Director in Fort Worth. “The company did not follow safety procedures or provide crucial training to employees about workplace hazards that exposed them to an unsafe work environment and hazardous conditions daily.”

Link to the citations:

• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/KTGalvanizingCoInc_1126994.pdf
• http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/KTGalvanizingCoInc_1126968.pdf

Background: Based in Katy, K-T Galvanizing Company Inc. has 70 employees, 35 at the Venus facility. The company has 15 business days from receipt of its 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 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 Fort Worth Area Office at 817-581-7303.