The pride of Sugar Land, the Imperial Sugar Co., has just been hit by one of the stiffest fines ever handed out by the feds’ worker-safety agency.
OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said Imperial should be fined $8.7 million for violations at a Georgia plant where an explosion killed 13 people this year and also at a Louisiana plant.
The company issued a press release saying the feds are wack.
Saying Imperial shares with OSHA a deep, deep concern for not having explosions that kill 13 people working at their plants, or words to that effect, CEO John Sheptor added:
“Today we received citations from OSHA and made our initial review and evaluation of the allegations contained in the citations. Based on this review, we have filed with OSHA a ‘notice of contest’ of the citations, in which we challenge the allegations of the citations, the characterization of the violations and the penalties proposed.”
The OSHA fine — third-largest ever levied by the agency — comes at a bad time for the sugar giant. Its stock has been struggling this year.
And, with a net profit of about $40 million last fiscal year, a fine of $8.7 million is a definite hit.
Not a good day out in Sugar Land.
— Richard Connelly
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2008.