CORRECTED: OSHA fines window manufacturer nearly $75K for exposing workers to safety hazards

Employer name: Crystal Window & Door Systems PA LLC

Inspection site: 204 Franklin Valley Road
Dalton, Pennsylvania

Citations issued: On Nov. 14, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations for eight serious and one other-than-serious safety violations.

Inspection findings: An inspection began on May 16, 2016, after a complaint alleging an amputation injury in January 2016 at the window manufacturer’s Dalton facility was not reported to OSHA. It was also conducted as part of OSHA’s national emphasis program focused on amputations.

Inspectors cited the company for serious violations involving:

• No established energy control program.
• Powered industrial trucks operated by employees without proper training.
• Unguarded machinery.
• A mechanical power press operated without a single-stroke mechanism, which prevents worker exposure to amputation hazards and other injuries.
• Mechanical power presses not periodically and regularly inspected and tested.
• Damaged electrical equipment.

The other-than-serious violation was due to the lack of a written hazard communication program.

Quote: “In January 2016 an employee of this company suffered a finger avulsion on his first day of work. By failing to ensure that proper safeguards were in place, Crystal Window & Door Systems jeopardized the safety of its workers,” said Mark Stelmack, director of OSHA’s Wilkes-Barre Area Office. “When employers fail to provide a safe workplace, we will hold them legally accountable.”

Proposed penalties: $74,826

The citations can be viewed at: https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/CrystalWindowsandDoors_1147868.pdf 

Since 1990, Crystal Window & Doors has grown to be one of the nation’s leading window manufacturers. Headquartered in Flushing, New York, the company and its subsidiaries have manufacturing space at four plants in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Riverside, California. Crystal employs over 400 people at its main factory, regional branches, subsidiaries and affiliate firms. Crystal branch offices are located in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Missouri. Its products are distributed in more than 35 states.

The employer 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, 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 Wilkes-Barre Office at 570- 826-6538.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to ensure these conditions for America’s working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

Editor’s Note: The headline and the quotation in this news release have been changed. A prior version incorrectly described circumstances leading to the OSHA citations.