A safe working environment is something that employees throughout Pennsylvania have come to expect. As a result of this being important to residents throughout the county, the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducts inspections of businesses nationwide. The goal of these inspections is to prevent work related injuries.

Dick's Sporting Goods, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was recently fined by OSHA for several safety violations discovered in a store in New York. There were three violations specifically uncovered in the inspection.

The first violation was that the business was not property training employees how to safely work in small spaces. A related violation was the failure to create entrances that are safe to the small, confined areas.

Perhaps the most egregious of the violations uncovered was a failure on the part of store managers to turn a trash compactor off before making employees get into the compactor to removed cardboard boxes that were jamming the machine.

As a result of the violations the company is being fined $57,300. The retailer has been fined for OSHA violations in the past. A different store in New York was fined a year ago for not training employees on how to use a fire extinguisher and making it difficult to even access the fire extinguisher.

The reduction of injuries sustained by employees while at work is an important task for businesses across the country to undertake. While businesses in Pennsylvania are required to carry workers' compensation insurance to provide benefits when injuries do occur, most would agree that it is best for all parties involved to try to avoid a workplace injury all together.

Source: Business Management, "OSHA squeezes fines from Dick's in trash bin case," Nov. 20, 2011