John Deere employees picket outside John Deere Davenport Works in Davenport. A safety complaint was filed at John Deere Seeding Group in Moline on Oct. 19 to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Peoria.
MEG MCLAUGHLIN
UAW workers stand along River Drive with 'on strike' signs in front of the John Deere Seeding Group on Friday in Moline.
The complaint could have been filed retroactively to the incident if the employee was on strike, according to Scott Allen, public information officer for OSHA Region 7, which includes the state of Illinois. OSHA is required to investigate all complaints and has a six month period to do so, according to Allen, but will investigate this complaint as soon as possible.
If violations of OSHA regulations are found, Deere & Co. will likely be required to pay a fine. The amount of the fine depends on how much liability Deere had in the incident as well as the severity of the safety accident, according to Allen. Sometimes corporations can lower the costs of fines by putting in new guidelines to prevent safety incidents from happening again. There are other specific details in the complaint that can impact the amount of the fine.
More details on the incident will not be available until the investigation is completed.
“Any worker can file a complaint even,” Allen said. “The media can actually call our 1-800 number … to report unsafe workplace practices or are working in those conditions. So please be encouraged to report if any employees say they don't feel they're working in a safe environment.”
Another dry day in the Quad-Cities that will be short-lived as the rains return overnight and into Thursday.
John Deere employees picket outside John Deere Davenport Works in Davenport. A safety complaint was filed at John Deere Seeding Group in Moline on Oct. 19 to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Peoria.