Ice Cream, Ice Cream, I Scream For Safety Training
A recent accident is a sad reminder of the importance of Employee Safety Training. Why am I talking about Employee Safety Training and not just sticking to Emergency Preparedness? Because it matters. Safety Training helps employees stay safe, and thus supports them building their best life. Employee Safety Training should also include training for disasters and emergencies by the way. Safety Training also helps protect you as a manager, executive, or owner of a business. With that, here’s the unfortunate story that is our cautionary tale.
Portland, Oregon news station KOIN 6 reported today that a 21 year old employee of the Cold Stone Creamery in Corvallis, Oregon lost three fingers on March 15 in a workplace accident. Reportedly, Jordyn Martin was wiping down one of the ice cream machines while it was still on.
The machine’s rotor caught the rag and pulled it, and her hand into the machine. The rag wrapped around her fingers and severed her pointer, middle, and ring fingers. The fingers were retrieved, but doctors were unable to successfully reattach them.
Ms Martin and two of her co-workers resigned immediately. They stated the reasons for their resignations were unsafe work conditions, a lack of safety training, and a lack of concern for employees from management.
Ms Martin has filed a worker’s compensation claim, and Oregon OSHA is investigating the accident.
Immediately when I saw the headline run across the ticker on KOIN, I guessed the employee safety training was insufficient.
I won’t make any assumptions about the managers or owners of this Cold Stone Creamery location being willfully neglectful of their obligations. I have no connection to this accident in any way, not to the related investigations. Rather, I choose to believe that the managers or owners were unaware of their employee safety obligations.
Safety (including Safety Training) Is A General Duty Of An Employer
While Oregon has its own Occupational Safety and Health Agency, I’ll reference the Federal OSHA rules and statutes. Many states have their own state level OSHA’s, and one of the requirements is that the rules provide equal or better protection than the Federal standards. With that being the case, this is the minimum standard that applies nationwide.
(a) Each employer —
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/oshact/section5-duties
(1) shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;
(2) shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act.
This is known as the General Duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
Furthermore, additional safety requirements are that signs are required on machinery, and where machinery is used, it is required for training how to use the machinery to include safe operation and cleaning of the machine.
From the statements of the now former employees, it sounds like whatever training they received did not include safety, as one of the former employees is quoted as saying “We didn’t know that the machine we were using was even capable of doing something like that. We thought it was completely safe to use and to clean, even when running.”
If the information provided by the employees is accurate, they did not receive the training they should have. Because of that, Ms Martin lost three fingers, and the store lost three employees.
What are the potential costs for Cold Stone?
- If Oregon OSHA determines there were wilful violations that resulted in this injury, the minimum penalty for a wilful violation is $9,753 and the maximum penalty is $135,653- per violation. That can be adjusted based on the number of employees the business had, so it probably wouldn’t be that much. Even still, that’s per violation. As a former Safety Manager, I can tell you it is likely each employee would be considered a separate violation. If there were 10 employees, that’s 10 violations.
There are several factors that go into exactly what the citations and penalties are, and I am not, nor have I ever been an OSHA or OR-OSHA Compliance Officer, but with the seriousness of this injury, I would not be surprised if the total penalties levied were over $100,000 once everything is totaled. That could be enough to put them out of business. No Cold Stone means less ice cream for the public, and (hopefully temporary) unemployment for the employees.
- Ms Martin has filed a Worker’s Compensation Claim. Even if Cold Stone isn’t required to pay a portion of her claim directly, their insurance rates will probably increase. They may even lose their insurance entirely if they are considered to be a significant risk.
- Ms Martin could file a civil suit against her former employer, which would result in more costs.
- If this Cold Stone store stays open, it will potentially have a damaged reputation which could mean fewer customers. One of the former employees stated the machine that injured Ms Martin is still in use after being cleaned. Personally, while I’m not familiar with the machine in question, I’m skeptical it would be able to be cleaned and sanitized 100% and even if it was, people might not want to have ice cream that has been through a machine that cause such an injury. If I were advising the company, my suggestion would be to replace the machine entirely from perspectives of both health and safety and public opinion.
Impacts On Ms Martin
More important than the financial aspects, let’s look at the impacts on Ms Martin. She’s an art major, an artist, and now she can no longer use her dominant hand. She will need to learn to use her left hand instead of her right for her tasks and activities. She may decide to change her major. Sadly, she may not be able to create her art at the level she wants and decide to stop creating entirely. If she was planning on a career based on her art, she will have to change her career plans.
For most artists, their art is an integral part of who they are. If she can’t continue her art, that could have additional impact on her mentally and emotionally beyond the physical, mental, and emotional trauma done by the injury itself.
Hopefully Ms Martin can continue with her plans. I hope she can adapt to using her left hand as her dominant hand. I hope she heals physically, mentally, and emotionally from her traumatic experience.
Please Conduct Employee Safety Training
What this all boils down to is because training wasn’t done, a store might be at risk of closing, financial damages will likely be significant, at least three people are now unemployed, and one person’s life is forever changed.
Because her employer didn’t meet their basic safety training obligations. Because Ms Martin wasn’t trained that you must turn a machine off before cleaning it.
Employee Safety Training takes some time. There are costs associated with it even if it is just the cost of time spent in training instead of performing their regular job duties. However, safety training is a vital part of a business or organization. Safety training is a must.
So… how’s your employee safety training program going?
If you wish to contribute, a gofundme account has been set up to support Ms Martin during her recovery.
Garrett Leeds is the multipassionate founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project. He is a solopreneur, writer, creator, father, and empathic human being. At the end of 2020 he published his first book, a book of poems entitled Love, Longing, And The Empty. Outside of work, Garrett can usually be found playing games, consuming media, or pondering deep questions.
