OSHA Inspection: COLOR TILE DISTRIBUTION

Issued

Oct 3, 1990

Abate by

Nov 2, 1990

Penalty

Initial $800 · Current $800

General-duty citation text

Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: The
employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were
free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death
or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to:
a) Workers who filled orders by loading items onto pallets were
subjected to lifting strain injuries to arms, shoulders, back and
trunk and legs when the employer failed to establish and rigorously
enforce work procedures that minimize their severity.
Workplace ergonomic hazards can be reduced in severity by a program that
includes, but is not limited, to the following:
a) Reduce the lifting stress on workers
1) Survey the warehouse and items handled. Rate the items as either;
"light", "medium", or "heavy", or as "low", "medium", or "high"
lifting hazards.
2) Investigation and (where possible) purchase items that have hand
holds on the side of "heavy" boxes, similarly attaching handles on
heavy boxes will also reduce lifting stress.
3) Provide access space around the sides of "medium" and "heavy" items
on the pallets. Alternatively, establish rules that require unloading
the face half of heavy supply items, and periodic rotation of the
supply pallet so that the back half of the pallet is facing the aisle
4) Train workers in the established safe lifting procedures that will be
used in the warehouse. Assign new workers, or those returning from
three weeks or more of "off" time, to a special monitor team. It is
expected that new and returning workers will experience a mild muscle
ache. The aches are expected to decrease and should be reduced to
zero in three or four weeks, when the workers' muscles become
conditioned to the work.
5) If a worker suffers a lifting injury that results in "lost time",
enroll that injured worker in a lifting therapy program under the
control of trained therapists and medical doctors. Therapy is
expected to be performed daily. Therapy can be expected to reduce
the "time off" for workers. It can be expected to assist in
determining the worker's rate of recovery from the injury. The
worker's fitness, and when the worker can safety return to the
workplace.
6) Evaluate each worker's lifting injury incident. Determine the details
of the work performed, whether safe lifting procedures were followed,
and what can be done to get the work done with the lease amount of
stress to the worker.
b) Establish a logical worker lifting quota program when the OSHA
inspection was made, the employer was enforcing lifting quotas of
4,000 lb/hr. There was discussion that the employer had increased or
expects to increase the quota to 6000 lb/hr. Defects in the quota
system include:
1) The quota is not based upon actual lifting time available to lift
objects from supply pallets, move them to the order pallet, and place
them.
There were no accounts given of any of the following:
a) Weight and number of individual pieces that must be handled.
b) Time spent traveling between supply pallets, nor the number of stops
required to fill the orders.
c) Time spent waiting to weigh the order.
d) Time spent in shrink wrapping the filled orders onto the pallet.
2) There is no uniformly enforced and written lifting quota program.
3) There is, neither a computer program that estimates the "best" route
for filling the order; nor in the alternative, is there an assigned
activity lifting percentage of time placed on individual orders.
4) Safe lifting rules have not been established and rigorously enforced
by the employer. Workers reported that they had been forced to use
high lifting stress body twisting, body rotation, extended arm
lifting, and object transfer to meet the standard.
Assuming that a lifting quota program will be used, it is strongly
suggested that the employer's program correct the above listed problems.
It is expected that the employer will establish and rigorously enforce
the rule that workers are always expected to make lifts by using the
employer-trained lifting procedures.

Issued

Oct 3, 1990

Abate by

Nov 2, 1990

Issued

Oct 3, 1990

Abate by

Nov 2, 1990