Feds find violations at Miami airport by company Shalala says is ‘harmful’ to health
Eulen America, a Spain-based company contracted by American Airlines and Delta Airlines to clean planes, will pay $46,739 in federal fines after inspections found eight serious safety and health violations at Miami International Airport.
Those violations prompted Congresswoman Donna Shalala to say on a Tuesday conference call that, ”Eulen is harmful to the health of its workers. That means it’s harmful to the health of this community. They‘re acting like they’re in the 19th century. They might get away with this in Spain, but we will not tolerate this in the United States.”
In an email to the Miami Herald, Eulen said: “We respectfully disagree with Representative Donna Shalala as it is clear she has been fed large amounts of misinformation by the union and the very small number of Eulen America employees they have been able to persuade to serve as spokespersons for their cause.”
“The union” is the Service Employees International Union, which sent South Florida media the Citation and Notification of Penalty from Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspections before setting up Tuesday’s conference call. Eulen America employees at MIA aren’t part of the SEIU.
Eulen, a subcontractor for American and Delta at Miami International Airport for 15 years, accuses the union of trying to push an “old and out of date narrative to suit their agenda.”
Whatever SEIU is doing, it was the Department of Labor’s OSHA branch that inspected Eulen in May and July. The results generally supported claims made by Eulen employees to Shalala and Wilson at a round table in April: too little water for employees, too much exposure to harmful germs, roaches running in vehicles.
OSHA’s proposed fines totaled $77,898 before Eulen remedies alleviated the financial punishment.
OSHA violations are classified as (in order of gravity) Other-Than-Serious, Repeated, Serious or Willful. All of these were Serious violations, according to the Oct. 25-issued Citation and Notification of Penalty:
▪ A lack of machine guarding left a “driver exposed to getting his fingers caught on the wire mesh that was on the back of the driver’s seat as the driver raised the platform in the back of the truck.”
▪ “Guardrail systems weren’t installed along all open sides and ends of platforms.” When employees lowered a guardrail to get into an aircraft, it “exposed employees to a fall of approximately 15 feet.”
▪ Leaving employees exposed to excessive heat while handling heavy material on July 11 and July 16. Eulen said, “As required by OSHA regulations, drinking water coolers are available throughout our operation, including on golf carts that circulate on the ramp. We also have drinking water fountains in our break rooms.”
▪ Eulen “didn’t administer a continuing, effecitve hearing conservation program...whenever employee noise exposure equal or exceed an eight-hour time-weighted average sound level of 85 decibels.” OSHA said one ramp agent was exposed to a continuous 87.5 decibels for over six hours and another 88.1 decibles for seven hours and 42 minutes.
For perspective, this chart by Purdue University says a diesel truck going 40 mph hits the ears of someone standing 50 feet away at 84 decibels.
Eulen’s email said, “Boxes of hearing guards in three different styles, are always available for employees to use at MIA. These are standard personal protective equipment certified by OSHA and readily available.”
▪ Workers claimed the trucks were roach-infested and OSHA found “The employer did not have an effective extermination control program for employees exposed to sanitation health hazards from insects, including, but not limited to, an infestation of cockroaches...”
Eulen said, “We fumigate our work areas every 15 days through a contract with Orkin. We have not had any reports of bugs or vermin in our new trucks that have been in operation on the ramp since July.”
▪ Workers complained they cleaned blood and vomit while wearing sub-standard gloves. OSHA found Eulen didn’t “develop and implement a written Exposure Control Plan for employees who are exposed to occupational bloodborne pathogens and other potentially infectious materials, when handling sharps and cleaning up human blood” nor did the company train workers in occupational bloodborne pathogens.
Also, OSHA found Eulen failed to make a hepatitis B vaccine available to them within 10 working days of assigning workers to such tasks.
“As of August of this year, any cabin cleaning and international security employees who want a Hepatitis B shot is given one, paid for by the company, while they are on the clock,” Eulen said.
American Airlines said in a Tuesday night email, “When these issues were first raised in April, American conducted an audit and investigation and concluded that some Eulen equipment needed to be replaced. The new equipment began being put into place earlier this summer. American takes these findings seriously and we will insist that Euler address these issues.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 7:02 AM.
