Ashley Furniture Industries Inc., a Wisconsin-based company the government says is the largest furniture maker in the country, faces fines of more than $1.7 million for repeated safety violations that resulted in more than 1000 injuries to workers, the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced.
The federal agency accused the company of creating a “culture that values production and profit over worker safety.”
An accident in which a worker lost three fingers while operating woodworking machinery in 2014 prompted an inspection that turned up 12 willful violations, 12 repeated violations, and 14 serious violations, OSHA said in announcing the fines on Feb. 2. The agency said that over a 3-1/2-year stretch, there were more than 1000 work-related injuries at the company.
The company has revenues of $3.8 billion and employs about 20,000 workers at 30 plants around the country, OSHA said.
Among the safety violations OSHA cited was a failure to prevent machines from unintentionally starting when workers were changing blades or tooling, and to otherwise provide safety mechanisms to protect workers from moving parts. The company also was accused of failing to train workers on safety procedures, of not providing “drenching facilities” for workers who had been exposed to corrosive materials, and of failing to equip some machines with emergency stop buttons.
Ashley Furniture has racked up a long list of violations in past inspections. The company has 15 days to contest the most recent report and fines.
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Ashley Furniture Industries has been cited for a number of safety violations and fined more than $1.7 million.
