The following is the text of a news release from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration:
(GULFPORT, Miss.) (Nov. 14) — The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Trinity Yachts LLC with four repeat, 14 serious and two other-than-serious safety and health violations. The May inspection was a result of a complaint OSHA received about the shipbuilding facility in Gulfport. Proposed penalties total $177,100.
"Trinity Yachts LLC has an extensive inspection history, has had ample opportunity to address violations, yet chooses to neglect the safety and health of its workplace," said Clyde Payne, OSHA's area director in Jackson. "This employer must take immediate action to remove these hazards before someone is seriously injured or killed."
The repeat violations, with $115,500 in penalties, involve the employer failing to maintain dry floors, failing to replace welding cords with exposed conductors, provide guards or covers for open hatches and provide guardrails on the open sides of the deck. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. The company received citations for similar violations in 2010 and 2011 at the same facility.
The serious violations, with $61,600 in penalties, include the employer failing to legibly mark circuit breakers; guard live, 120-volt electrical parts from accidental contact; close unused openings in electrical boxes; prevent flexible hoses from being submerged in water; and not elevating hoses and cords above decks and hallways. Additionally, the employer failed to tag slings with the manufacturer's recommended safe working loads; prevent loads from being suspended over the heads of workers; provide safe access to mobile scaffolding; repair the travel alarm on a gantry crane; and dry and test welding machines after a rainstorm. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
The other-than-serious violations, with no monetary penalties, involve the employer's failure to affix a clearly legible rating load on the side of the gantry crane and to provide screens to protect workers adjacent to the welding areas. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.
The company, which designs and constructs offshore vessels, commercial tugs and patrol crafts, has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director in Jackson, 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 Jackson office at 601-965-4606.
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.
