OSHA Fines GE Appliance Maker Max Amount in Death of Alabama Worker
Safety regulators fined a GE appliance manufacturer the maximum amount allowed by law in the 2024 death of an Alabama worker who was killed after the company ignored standard safety procedures, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration said this week.
Haeir US Appliance Solutions, part of Hong Kong-based Haier Electronics Group, was charged with willful and serious violations after the July death of 58-year-old Rodney Terry at the Decatur plant. OSHA said in a bulletin that it has recommended a penalty of almost $194,000.
The agency also noted that Louisville-based Haier, operating as GE Appliances, has a history of machine safety violations dating from at least 2016, including ones that resulted in the 2019 death of a Louisiana worker.
“Haier US Appliance Solutions could have avoided this tragedy but put production schedules and profit ahead of employee safety,” OSHA’s Area Office Director Joel Batiz said in a statement. “This company’s troubling history of safety failures in its manufacturing process has posed a significant risk to the more than 1,500 workers at its Decatur location who rely on a safe and healthy workplace.”
Company officials said that the Decatur facility has a strong safety record. It was part of a voluntary program for almost 30 years in which OSHA teams inspected the plant, interviewed workers and reviewed safety procedures.
“GE Appliances has always been and remains deeply committed to safety, and there is no issue we take more seriously as a company,” the parent company said in a statement. “We cooperated fully with OSHA on the incident investigation, but we respectfully disagree with OSHA’s conclusions. It is against company policy and company training to bypass machine safeguards and enter equipment without de-energizing and locking out the equipment.”
OSHA officials said Haier, which makes refrigerators and freezers for GE, allowed workers to bypass a door-molding machine’s safety doors and did not utilize long-established and required “lock-out, tag-out” procedures. Those procedures are designed to prevent a machine from being turned on while a worker is making repairs or cleaning the equipment.
Haier has 15 business days to comply with the penalty, request a conference with OSHA, or contest the penalties before an independent review commission.
Update: This article was updated Feb. 6, 2024 to include a response from GE Appliances.