Facing nearly $80,000 is fines, Jefferson sawmill operator N.C. Hunt Inc., has settled with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration for roughly half of that amount.
N.C. Hunt owner Norman Hunt confirmed the settlement last week. As agreed, the assessed fine $39,655, will be paid in 35 monthly installments of $1100, still a bitter pill, but one more financially palpable, Hunt said.
On May 6, OSHA officials announced it cited N.C. Hunt Inc. for 10 violations of workplace safety standards at the company’s sawmill facility in Jefferson and levied fines totaling $79,310.
The announcement and the fines followed an inspection by OSHA’s Augusta office in December 2012.
Hunt said the settlement was more or less a business decision. After appeals, the fines were reduced by 50 percent. He certainly could have pursued the matter further, but he would have shouldered the burden of additional expenses and faced the possibility his appeal could have been denied and the full penalty reinstated.
Hunt said the same violations that incurred the fine this time passed previous inspections without issue.
“I just shake my head,” he said. “This just isn’t fair. Here we are, trying to make a business go, in this economy, and he nails us for $80,000? We are glad he came and we are glad to correct things, but the financial burden is unjustified. These are hard economic times.”
In Hunt’s opinion, OSHA’s action as an enforcement entity is just another example of the government getting in the way of business instead of helping business. In the immediate future, Hunt said he intends to ask SafetyWorks to come in and do another top to bottom review of the plant’s operation.
Safety, Hunt said, is a priority at the Jefferson plant, which has won industry awards for safety in two of the last three years. “We are probably the safest mill of our size in New England,” he said. “Obviously we want safety first.”
