A FedEx employee filed a complaint with OSHA last summer claiming the company failed to provide proper personal protective equipment to workers following a formic acid spill at a facility in Des Moines. Employees further claimed they were told to continue working after a container holding hundreds of gallons of formic acid began leaking. They said managers declined to tell them what chemical was being released and threatened them with disciplinary action if they refused to keep working or left to seek medical treatment. The employees stated there were two similar incidents in August. During one incident insecticides chlorpyrifos and bifenthrin were released. The other incident involved an unknown flammable chemical.
OSHA has completed its investigation and determined FedEx had indeed violated hazardous waste and emergency training rules on four occasions when handling formic acid, violated rules for emergency alarms involving formic acid, and failed to eliminate hazardous conditions before employees returned to work. FedEx has been ordered to pay $24,578 in fines, however the company is contesting OSHA’s findings. Company spokesman Ron Mears issued a statement saying “FedEx Freight remains committed to ‘Safety Above All.’ We are unable to provide further details on these Iowa OSHA citations, which are the subject of a pending challenge.”
Iowa OSHA fines FedEx for mishandling hazardous materials at Des Moines freight facility
