The world’s largest sauerkraut cannery was fined by the federal government after a worker was injured when he fell into an empty vat used to ferment raw cabbage.
GLK Foods, in Bear Creek, Wis., was fined $143,550 by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for failing to implement safety protocols. Those safety measures could have prevented an October 2015 incident in which an employee fell 17 feet and broke multiple bones, according to a statement released Tuesday.
It’s the fourth time in five years the sauerkraut manufacturer has been cited for exposing workers to multiple hazards, but the government will not shut down the company.
“If GLK Foods had fixed safety discrepancies found in previous OSHA inspections this man’s injury would likely have been prevented,” said Robert Bonack, OSHA’s area director in Appleton. “In 2014, there were more than 86,300 job related injuries and illnesses recorded for Wisconsin workers. Too many workers suffer life-altering injuries because employers fail to follow common-sense safety procedures and regulations to protect them on the job.”
OSHA issued one willful, two repeat, five serious and one-other-than-serious violations for the October accident. The federal report states employees were unprotected from falls while working on top of cabbage fermentation vats, management did not develop rescue procedures or provide equipment for those operations, and railings were not installed on moving conveyor belts.
The company, which processes 140,000 tons of raw cabbage every year, has not issued a response to the new citations.
