Ashley Furniture Denies OSHA Citations

October 22, 2015  by in Industry, Legal   

Earlier this week, OSHA said it was citing Ashley with eight violations at its Whitehall, Wis., upholstery factory. The administration levied fines of $431,000 against the company.

In a statement, the company said OSHA’s documents “appear to confirm that inspectors did not actually see many of the alleged violations in Whitehall—but merely may have based their allegations on assumptions” during plant inspections in April.

"The claim that Ashley failed to protect its workers from moving machine parts is outrageous,” said Paul Waters, legal counsel for Ashley Furniture. “At all times, Ashley has machine guards in place that are provided by the manufacturer and, in some cases, the Company has gone beyond what manufacturers put in place by installing additional guards and implementing special procedures to protect workers. We will vigorously defend ourselves against these charges before the Review Commission."

The company said it is expanding its safety program with additional training, additional machinery processes and other improvements. The statement also said over the last five years, Ashley has shown a track record of lowering its incident and “days away, restricted or transferred” – demonstrating a commitment to  improvements in safety across the company.

“Each employee’s safety and well-being is an absolute priority at Ashley,” said Phil Kinney, Ashley vice president of health and safety. “We strongly disagree with OSHA’s conclusions and are ready to present the facts to the agency so that we can resolve our disagreement.”