- By Georgette Braun
Rockford Register StarPosted Mar. 16, 2015 at 2:10 PM
Updated at 9:23 PMROCKFORD — Behr Iron & Steel recycling plants face penalties of $366,400 for continued exposure of workers to hazards, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Monday in a news release.Behr, which employs 450 people at 14 Midwest facilities, was cited for exposing workers to amputation hazards during maintenance and while processing scrap metal in Rockford and Peoria. Safety mechanisms were not in place, the agency said. The penalties are for five willful and nine serious safety violations, including fall and confined-space hazards.The company operates at 1100 Seminary St. and 208 Quaker Road in Rockford, where OSHA said Behr failed to use energy-control procedures, such as powering off and affixing locking devices. At Behr's Peoria facility, OSHA said workers at the company must enter a sorting house conveyor to use the shredder.OSHA initiated the inspections at three Behr facilities when similar hazards were found during an investigation into the March 2014 death of a worker at the company's recycling facility in South Beloit.The company has five days to make improvements or to contest the findings. A woman who answered the phone at Behr in Rockford said no one was available to speak with a Register Star reporter seeking more information.Before the latest checks, the company had been inspected seven times in five years and cited for machine hazards at various locations in Illinois and Iowa.
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