The meat-packing plant of Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN) at Lexington, NE has been fined a sum of $ 66,000 against eight charges brought on by The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). The federal agency has accused Tyson of exposing its workers to heath hazards in their workplace. The management failed to cover an electrical fitting and there were deficiencies in the refrigeration systems as well.
Following these violations inspections were initiated in January under programs initiated to study industries with a high occupational injury and illness rate and manage chemical hazards. The agency reported that the retail giant had been blamed for repeating a mistake and seven other serious violations. As per the safety rules of the agency, a serious violation is one where the employer is aware of life risk or extend of any probable physical injury.
The plant was also charged of deficiencies as per the safety management program, respiratory protection program and control of hazardous energy lockout program; and a lack of proper maintenance of powered industrial trucks.
The company also received one other-than-serious citation for failure to conduct a personal protection equipment hazard assessment. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm. The company has been ordered to pay the penalties within fifteen days notice.
On March 30, 2011 the company had faced another penalty of $ 45,000 for ten safety violations in its plant at Jefferson. Out of them nine were serious violations and only one was other-than-serious. On the other hand, Tyson Foods managed to secure a safer position of 50 out of 150 companies rated by Forbes’ Reputation in the first week of April.
Part of Tyson’s reputation is tied to its ongoing corporate citizenship social corporate initiatives of fighting hunger in the U.S. The company celebrated 10 years of dedicated service for hunger relief in September 2010 and has donated almost 79 million pounds of protein during that time.
Tyson which competes with Smithfield Foods Inc. (SFD) maintains a Neutral rating on Zacks. Further, Tyson holds a Zacks #2 Rank, which translates into a short-term Buy rating.
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