Food manufacture workplace safety violations cause severe injuries

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Workers in fresh food manufacturing plants have been getting injured at a high rate in Illinois. 

The problem is so serious that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) created a special program to monitor the industry and work to reduce injuries and deaths. 

According to OSHA, from 2016 through 2020, these workers suffered 20 broken bones and 126 amputations.

One of those amputations happened to Oscar Gonzalez Malave when he was working on the production line at Rana Meal Solutions in Bartlett.

The company is known nationwide for fresh pasta that cooks quickly. These heat-and-eat meals can be found in grocery stores just about everywhere.

Malave filed a lawsuit against the company, accusing it of failing to protect him at work. As part of the lawsuit, Malave gave sworn deposition testimony. 

It began with Oscar being told to raise his right hand and swear to tell the truth. He had to raise his left hand, because he no longer has a right hand to raise.

Malave answered questions in Spanish, and then an interpreter gave the response in English. Malave spoke about his work at Rana Meal Solutions and his first assignment.

"They assigned me to a section that is called Pesto," said Malave.

Then in 2020, nine months after being hired, Malave was working on a massive industrial pasta machine. He was cleaning off excess dough when his hand got caught inside.

"There was a lot of screaming," said Malave. "It grabbed my hand and it did like one rotation. When it grabbed me, it lifted me up like a rotation - a full rotation."

Malave could not move. Other workers rushed to help him.

"I was like coughing. I was bleeding out," said Malave.  "And if it would have done another rotation, I would have been eaten by the machine."

As he sat there in intense pain, Malave started having dark thoughts.

"Your brain starts to kind of work and say, 'Am I going to die here?'" said Malave. "So much pain that I just lost all strength."

Surgeons could not save Malave's arm. It was amputated just below his shoulder.

Malave's injury triggered a federal OSHA investigation, which then cited Rana Meal Solutions with multiple workplace safety violations. There was even a willful violation, the worst possible, for worker safety training.

Kevin Herrera, legal director at Raise the Floor Alliance – a nonprofit working to protect low-wage manufacturing workers – says Malave's injury could have been prevented. Herrera also reviewed OSHA violation records related to other worker injuries at the plant.

"To see the words, 'serious, repeat, and willful,' in an investigation indicates, to me, that was a very problematic workplace – or is a very problematic workplace," said Herrera.

Lance Northcutt and Aaron Boeder, Malave's attorneys, accuse Rana Meal Solutions of failing to properly train Malave and failing to ensure the pasta machines were locked and safe during cleaning. When those safety measures fail, they say the consequences are severe.

"I mean this is a situation where flesh, bone, nerves, muscle are being crushed slowly over seconds," said Northcutt.

"It seems that they're putting profits over people," said Boeder. "Profits over their people."

Malave was not the first and would not be the last worker at the company to suffer an amputation. OSHA records reveal another worker had an arm amputated in 2015. In 2019, a worker's fingertip was amputated. Then in 2023, OSHA investigated a finger amputation.

"It's most certainly a pattern," said Northcutt.

"What we're seeing is consistent violation, consistent violation, consistent violation," said Herrera.

OSHA records reveal Rana Meal Solutions had 29 workplace safety violations dating back to 2012, and was fined more than a $500,000. Like many companies, they appealed the violations, which were reduced to 26. The willful violation, in Malave's case, was downgraded to a repeat violation. And the fine was reduced to around $400,000.

While declining to do an interview, a statement was sent from Rana Meal Solutions President Jean-Pierre Comte. It read, in part: "We consider any injury unacceptable, which is why we've invested in significant plant improvements every year and conducted 52,000+ hours of employee training in 2023. This is not something we take lightly and are working alongside OSHA to ensure we constantly look for ways to improve our facilities and workplace environments." 

Aside from the OSHA investigated injuries, there have been others. Records of 911 calls we obtained show emergency help was needed in 2019, for a worker's arm trapped in a machine. Then in 2020, there was another call for help when a worker's finger was cut to the bone.

"That's the concern for me about the repeat offenders," said Herrera. "Whether or not it's willful, you know that this has happened before. And you know that someone has been devastated and traumatized by your workplace. So why not change something."

OSHA officials say Rana Meal Solutions has agreed to safety enhancements. Those include retraining workers on safety procedures, establishing a safety and health committee which will include production workers, and bringing in an outside safety consultant.

Company's Full Statement:

"We value our employees, and their safety and well-being is of paramount importance. We consider any injury unacceptable, which is why we've invested in significant plant improvements every year and conducted 52,000+ hours of employee training in 2023. This is not something we take lightly and are working alongside OSHA to ensure we constantly look for ways to improve our facilities and workplace environments."  -Jean-Pierre Comte, President, Rana Meal Solutions