OSH Review Commission makes important machine guarding ruling

The citation, issued against Delek Refining, alleged that the company failed to protect workers from exposed rotating shafts on two pieces of machinery in a refinery – a fan and a cooling tower pump motor.

According to the law, to issue a machine guarding violation OSHA must show either that workers are actually exposed to unguarded moving parts of machinery or that it is “reasonably predictable” that they will be.

In the Delek case, an administrative law judge upheld the citation, saying it was “reasonably predictable” that employees would be in the zone of danger created by the machinery.

But the Review Commission said that the judge misinterpreted the phrase “reasonably predictable,” saying there was no evidence that any employees were stationed at or near either piece of machinery.

While testimony in the case showed that workers could get to the machines, “it does not establish how close any employee actually came to the zone of danger, either as their work required or through inadvertence.”

The Review Commission’s ruling on machine guarding was part of a larger review of citations against Delek, some of which were upheld.