Federal workplace safety officials have cited a water technology company after an employee was injured when a guardrail loosened and he fell and struck his head on a support beam as he lowered himself into a nearly 30-foot deep water test pit in the company’s in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, facility.
Xylem Inc. faces U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed penalties of $234,054 for one willful and eight serious safety violations.
OSHA received a report of the injury on Oct. 29, 2020. Inspectors later determined that the company exposed employees to walking-working surfaces hazards, failed to provide employees with fall protection before they entered a 100 by 24-foot water-testing pit and failed to follow specific permit-required confined spaces safety procedures prior to entering the water test pits.
Based in Rye Brook, New York, Xylem is an international company that tests, troubleshoots and repairs large industrial water treatment pumps used by power plants and municipalities. The company employs more than 1,600 workers nationwide and 57 at the Pewaukee facility.
The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Source: OSHA
Topics Workers' Compensation Tech
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