P & L PALLET REPAIR

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, P & L PALLET REPAIR — a wood container and pallet manufacturing facility located at 902 13TH ST N, GREAT FALLS, MT 59401 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 10 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $25,258.00. The inspection case was opened on 2016-12-21.

The volume of citations issued during this inspection suggests systematic compliance deficiencies rather than isolated incidents. Facilities with 10 or more citations typically face comprehensive abatement requirements and may be subject to follow-up inspections.

BLS Injury Data: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022), this industry sector has an occupational injury rate of 3.3 per 100 full-time workers — 22% above the national average of 2.7. The sector fatality rate is 2.3 per 100,000 workers.

Industry Benchmark: The total penalty of $25,258.00 is more than 3.0× the national average of $8,414.32 for facilities in the Manufacturing sector (NAICS 321920). This sector encompasses 52,095 inspected facilities nationwide with aggregate penalties totaling $438.3M.

State Context: Within MT, this facility's penalty places it at the 99th percentile among 9,480 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $2,110.71.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 10 citations spanning 5 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 6 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition. 2 other-than-serious — The violation has a direct relationship to job safety and health but is unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm. 2 repeat — A substantially similar violation was found during a previous inspection and the original citation has become a final order.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning March 1, 2017 with the latest abatement deadline set for November 21, 2022. Of the 10 total citations, 0 (0%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, which may indicate ongoing compliance gaps requiring further regulatory attention.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $25,258.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $2,525.80 falls within the standard penalty range.

The enforcement record for P & L Pallet Repair reveals a deeply entrenched pattern of non-compliance, characterized by the recurrence of high-gravity hazards that directly threaten worker limb and life. The presence of "Repeat" violations for machine guarding (1910.212(a)(1)) and lockout/tagout procedures (1910.147(c)(4)(i)) indicates a systemic failure of management to implement sustainable safety controls following prior OSHA interventions. In the context of pallet manufacturing—an industry fraught with high-speed cutting equipment and pneumatic machinery—the failure to establish specific energy control procedures is particularly egregious. These violations suggest that employees were routinely exposed to catastrophic amputation risks and accidental mechanical startups during maintenance cycles. The penalty structure, totaling over $25,000, reflects a severity level significantly higher than the industry average for small-scale wood product manufacturing, primarily driven by the "Repeat" classifications which carry enhanced statutory maximums. Furthermore, the combination of electrical safety deficiencies (1910.303 and 1910.305) and egress obstructions (1910.37) paints a picture of a facility where fundamental physical plant safety was secondary to production throughput. This profile suggests a reactive safety culture where hazards were ignored until identified by external regulators, creating a high-liability environment where the probability of a debilitating industrial accident was substantially elevated.