OSHA Inspection: DELCO ELECTRONICS CORPORATION

Issued

Apr 15, 1988

Abate by

Sep 18, 1996

Penalty

Initial $1,000

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 causing or likely to cause serious physical
harm in that the employees in the Dip Coat department 6457, Stick Lead
department 6435, and the Burn-In department 6453 performed work tasks
that resulted in:
a) Injuries to the back and workers' bodies associated with manual
lifting and handling of loads, ie; buckets and/or tote boxes. There
numberous instances in which workers were placed on extended medical
leave, and/or under the treatment of medical doctors and/or
chiropractors.
The work hazards can be abated by a programmed effort to study the work
being performed in the named departments.  The study can be expected to
include consideration of the configuration of the work station, force
and motions required to lift, and number of repetitions of task per
hour.  Based upon analysis findings, the employer can be expected to
control the configuration of work stations, including material supply
locations, and establish the standardized methods for the performance of
tasks.  This effort has been described as job and work station design.
In the course of the OSHA investigation of the work being performed in
the departments, the following items were observed.  While we can not
say that they are all significant, it is suggested that the job and work
station evaluation effort include consideration of the following
specific items:
1) Reduce the weight of the filled tote boxes in all the fore mentioned
departments used to transport. Reduced weight will reduce back trauma
instances.
2) Modify work stations in department 6457 and 6453 to eliminate the
need for employees to lift tote boxes filled with ECMs.