The Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Division Thursday announced a $7,850 fine related to an August incident in which an employee's hand was pulled into an unguarded meat tenderizing machine.
On Aug. 3, a female worker was feeding meat into a tenderizing machine when her gloved right hand was pulled into the blades, the investigation found. The worker sustained two severely fractured fingers and cuts that required 60 stitches. Oregon OSHA cited Bright Oaks Meat for failing to guard the machine, failing to report an overnight hospitalization within 24 hours, and failing to have a safety committee.
The fine follows an Aug. 12 inspection at Bright Oaks Meat, Inc., Oregon OSHA said in a news release, and could have been as high as $70,000. The agency said it lowered the penalty because Bright Oaks is a small employer and because the violation was unlikely to result in the death of a worker.
The injured worker had been employed for about a year before the accident and had never used the machine with a guard, Oregon OSHA reported. An inspection found that the guard had been missing for two years prior to the accident with what the agency termed “no effort...made to replace it.”
According to its Facebook page, Bright Oak Meats is a 30-year-old company that began in carcass cattle sales. Now, Bright Oak is a butcher shop that slaughters local beef, buffalo, elk and lamb for retail and wholesale.
