Syracuse foundry to pay $276K for workplace-safety violations

Frazer & Jones Co. Inc. agrees to correct serious hazards, implement enhanced safeguards

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A Syracuse iron foundry cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for dozens of health and safety violations has agreed to correct 60 cited hazards, implement enhanced corrective measures, and pay $276,189 in penalties in a settlement agreement with the department.

OSHA’s Syracuse–area office cited Frazer & Jones Co. Inc. in November 2019 following safety and health inspections that identified multiple hazards. They included: exposing employees to crystalline silica, silica dust and combustible dust; inadequate respiratory protection; unsafe work floors and walking surfaces; deficient confined space safeguards; inaccessible or unavailable fire extinguishers; and an impeded exit route. 

The settlement, deemed a final order of the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission effective Oct. 14, contains enhanced abatement measures that Frazer & Jones will implement. That includes semi-annual inspections of the facility by a safety consultant; addressing the consultant’s recommendations for action and sharing them with the facility’s labor-management safety committee and the corporate parent’s board of directors; implementing systems to receive and respond to employee complaints; and having a ventilation consultant evaluate the facility’s dust-control system for overhaul. 

“The hazards our inspectors found at Frazer & Jones Co. Inc. exposed workers to potential injuries and long-term health effects. This settlement requires correction of those hazards and it commits the employer to implement ongoing measures to prevent these conditions from recurring in the future,” Jeffrey Prebish, OSHA area director in Syracuse, said in a release. 

OSHA’s Syracuse–area office conducted the original inspections. Trial attorney Rosemary Almonte of the department’s regional Office of the Solicitor in New York City negotiated the settlement for the department.