Imperial CEO Answers Allegations of Unsafe Working Conditions

The CEO of Imperial Sugar is speaking out tonight.

This comes after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped close to nine million dollars of fines for more than one hundred safety violations on the sugar company.

In a statement released today C.E.O. John Sheptor says, “Imperial Sugar has spent millions of dollars in capital investment to enhance the safety programs and to reduce the threat of combustible dust. We will commit millions more to further enhance safety. We disagree strongly with OSHA's claims and we look forward to presenting the facts that show our commitment to safety.”

In a News Three follow up Night Side Reporter Alice Massimi has more on some of the alleged safety violations.

I sat down with Mr.Sheptor last week, before the OSHA report was released, to talk about the safety of the Port Wentworth facility. Armed with documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives I asked Mr. Sheptor about some of his employees’ allegations.

There are hundreds of pages, interviews conducted by the ATF with employees of Imperial Sugar and those working at the Port Wentworth facility.

Some of them tell of increased cleanup efforts, but others also tell of unsafe working conditions.

In one of the interviews a Packing Operator at the Refinery speaks of dust build up in some areas of 4 to 6 inches.

“There is no denial that there were times when there were sugar piles in different work areas, what I can say is that it was not a constant state,” explains John Sheptor.

Than there are claims of dust collectors not working, haziness in the air and employees experiencing discolored mucus because of the amount of dust.

In one interview a contractor who worked at the facility states he and other employees had several safety concerns.... from lack of emergency exits, to un-inspected fire extinguishers to insufficient ventilation.... All concerns this employee says were never taken seriously.

So I asked Sheptor the CEO of Imperial Sugar about these claims.

“I think what happens when you have an event like this is the recall of employees and those involved begin to pull together all of their observations over many yeas and it all begins to feel like the same observation.”

While he can't say if that's what happened in any of these interviews he is confident the Port Wentworth facility was making progress.

“The management team walked through our facility first thing in the morning and they made a list of some areas that needed some form of improvement, and they returned after lunch to see if they had been taken care of.”

Yet OSHA doesn't seem to agree, saying if Imperial Sugar had complied with its safety standards 13 lives wouldn’t have been lost. 

Sheptor says the new Port Wentworth facility will be built to OSHA, National Fire Protection Association and international standards.