The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited the Lowe's Home Centers Inc. regional distribution center in Rockford with $182,000 in proposed penalties for failure to document and report employee injuries and illnesses, as required by OSHA safety and health regulations.

As the result of a May inspection, OSHA issued Lowe's Home Centers Inc. four willful citations with a proposed penalty of $160,000 for alleged continuous failure to correctly classify injuries or illnesses and not correctly recording the number of days a worker was away from work due to injury or illness in the OSHA 300 log. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirements, or plain indifference to employee safety and health.

The distribution center also received two repeat violations with proposed penalties of $20,000 and two other-than-serious violations with proposed penalties of $2,000 for other recordkeeping violations. OSHA requires employers to record and maintain occupational injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300 log. A repeat violation is issued when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. An other-than-serious violation is one that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm.

"Accurate injury and illness records are vital to protecting workers' health and safety," said OSHA Area Director Kathy Webb in North Aurora, Ill. "Accurate records are an important tool that employers and workers can use to identify hazards in the workplace, and they also enable OSHA to better target its resources."

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. Employers and employees with questions regarding workplace safety and health standards can call OSHA's North Aurora Area Office at 630-896-8700. To report workplace injuries, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742).