Pepsi Guam Bottling is addressing the recent safety concerns brought forth by other members of the media and by the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
According to the US Department of Labor – federal safety inspectors found Pepsi Guam Bottling to have jeopardized the safety of their employees.
Saying that PGB disabled “safety devices to allow workers to reach into a bottle-labeling machine as often as 15 times an hour to grab and fix labels and adjust tipping bottles to avoid slowing or stopping production.”
The US Department of Labor’s website says that OSHA determined PGB was exposing employees to amputation and other serious injuries by leaving the machine’s guard doors open and permitting a safety proximity switch to be deactivated.
Adding that the company failed to protect workers from operating machine parts.
Specifically, OSHA found that PGB failed to do a total of seven things.
Among them are:
Failing to protect employees from rotating parts, in-going nip point and burn hazards during operations of the bottle-labeling machine at production speed.
Place a chuck guard on a drill press to protect workers from rotating parts.
and Enclose sprocket wheels and chains on a packer machine among others.
In response, PGB General Manager, Jon Denight, through a media release, says that they are appreciative that OSHA was able to identify these important safety issues.
Adding that they have already addressed most of OSHA’s issues and are confident that once they have reviewed all relevant information – he says that OSHA will agree that PGB has always acted with the “best intentions and with a sincere desire to protect the safety” of their employees.
