Chrysler to Pay Record $300,000 for Under-Reporting Job Injuries

Chrysler Corp. agreed Friday to pay nearly $300,000 in fines, the largest ever collected by the government under job safety laws, on charges that it under-reported worker injuries at auto plants in Illinois, Delaware and Ohio.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the agreement settles 182 citations for “willful” record-keeping violations that the agency brought against Chrysler last November.

Had Sought $910,000

OSHA originally sought fines totaling $910,000 for what officials had said were intentional violations of job injury record-keeping requirements between January, 1985, and April, 1986, at Chrysler’s Belvidere, Ill., assembly plant.

Among the alleged violations at the Belvidere plant, where 3,900 auto workers are employed, were instances in which job accidents that resulted in hospitalization and surgery were not listed on logs, as required by the government

In several cases, Chrysler was cited for crossing off injuries on the OSHA records, which are used by the agency in determining its inspection priorities.

OSHA Assistant Secretary John A. Pendergrass said Friday that Chrysler agreed not to contest the charges at the Belvidere plant and to pay a reduced fine of $284,830.

In addition, the company agreed to pay fines totaling $10,002 in regard to allegations of under-reporting accidents at its assembly plant in Newark, Del., and $500 for what were described as “other-than-serious” reporting violations at its stamping plant at Twinsburg, Ohio.

Under terms of the settlement, Pendergrass said, Chrysler does not admit any violations.