Since 2016, OSHA inspectors have visited Tri-County Gin in Oklahoma 3 times.
The most recent inspection opened on Nov 13, 2020 on a referral, in Chattanooga.
In all, OSHA issued 5 citation items: 5 serious.
The proposed penalties came to $13,861; today they stand at $11,461, 17% less.
The rule cited most here is 1928.57 (guarding of farm field equipment, farmstead equipment, and cotton gins), 4 times.
Among farming, fishing and forestry employers, the typical cited inspection since 2015 ends with a $1,440 penalty. Tri-County Gin averages $5,730 across 2 cited inspections.
Tri-County Gin also files yearly injury logs with OSHA, summarized below.
It reported 2 severe injuries to OSHA since 2015.
The Wage and Hour Division has 1 case on it since 2015, with $46 in back wages owed to workers.
Citation items per year, by inspection date.
Want to know if OSHA cites Tri-County Gin again? Add it to a watchlist and we will email you the morning the citation shows up.
Incident on Nov 11, 2020: Employee amputates four fingers when removing trash from lin
At 2:00 p.m. on November 11, 2020, an employee was helping a coworker, his supervisor, by removing burning trash from a lint cleaner. The employee's hand was struck by a blade, resulting in the amputation of all four fingers at the middle joint. He was hospitalized.
Citation and rule
Type
Proposed
Current
Issued
Status
Citation 1, item 1a
29 CFR 1928.57(a)(11) · Guarding of farm field equipment, farmstead equipment, and cotton gins
Serious
$5,461
$5,461
Apr 6, 2021
Final
Citation 1, item 1b
29 CFR 1928.57(d)(2)(ii) · Guarding of farm field equipment, farmstead equipment, and cotton gins
Serious
$0
$0
Apr 6, 2021
Final
Inspection 342663861 OPENED SEP 26, 2017Closed
Unprogrammed related · Partial · Safety · 4 employees at the site · Closed Jan 2, 2018
29 CFR 1928.57(c)(3)(i) · Guarding of farm field equipment, farmstead equipment, and cotton gins
Serious
$2,800
$2,000
Jul 22, 2016
Final
Injury and illness logs
From the Form 300A summaries employers file with OSHA each year. Rate = recordable cases per 100 full-time workers.
In 2019, the Chattanooga site logged 0 recordable injuries or illnesses among about 11 workers: 0.0 per 100 full-time workers, against a median of 2.9 for its industry.
Site and year
Workers
Cases
Days-away cases
Rate
Industry median
Tri-County Gin
Chattanooga · 2019
11
0
0
0.0
2.9
Severe injury reports
Employers must report any work-related amputation, in-patient hospitalization or loss of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours. 2 reports on file.
An employee was cleaning out a cotton ginning plant when the machine caught his work glove and pulled his left hand into the machine. Four fingers on the employee's left hand were amputated at the second joint.
An employee went into the cotton compress pit and climbed a ladder up to two press boxes. The press boxes are 24 in. wide x 48 in. long and held together by a bar between them. The press box rotates before it compresses the cotton. There is an 8 inch opening and the employee's arm got caught in that opening. As the press box began to rotate it tore part of his arm. The employee was able to…
Wage and hour cases
Cases by the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division since 2015: unpaid minimum wage or overtime, child labor, family leave and more.
Period reviewed
Violations
Workers owed
Back wages
Penalties
Aug 1, 2019 to Dec 12, 2019
Chattanooga
4
1
$46
$0
The rules behind these citations
Current text from the Code of Federal Regulations. Some citations were issued under older wording.
29 CFR 1928.57 · Guarding of farm field equipment, farmstead equipment, and cotton gins
29 CFR 1928.57(a)(11)
(11) Servicing and maintenance. Whenever a moving machinery part presents a hazard during servicing or maintenance, the engine shall be stopped, the power source disconnected, and all machine movement stopped before servicing or maintenance is performed, except where the employer can establish that:
29 CFR 1928.57(a)(6)(iii)
(iii) Stop engine, disconnect the power source, and wait for all machine movement to stop before servicing, adjusting, cleaning, or unclogging the equipment, except where the machine must be running to be properly serviced or maintained, in which case the employer shall instruct employees as to all steps and procedures which are necessary to safely service or maintain the equipment;
29 CFR 1928.57(c)(3)(i)
(3) Functional components. (i) Functional components, such as choppers, rotary beaters, mixing augers, feed rolls, conveying augers, grain spreaders, stirring augers, sweep augers, and feed augers, which must be exposed for proper function, shall be guarded to the fullest extent which will not substantially interfere with the normal functioning of the component.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OSHA enforcement data. A citation is OSHA's allegation; employers can contest it, and the status column shows where each item stands. Something wrong on this page? Tell us.
