- Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) inspectors cite and fine Hillsdale County Road Commission $5000 for bat infestations and droppings in workspaces.
- Employee representatives say the problem has been ongoing since last year.
- MIOSHA confirms it has been in touch with the Road Commission about employee complaints since October 2023.
- Road Commission management says it's been responsive to MIOSHA and is working to remedy the problem.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Bats and their droppings inside Hillsdale County Road Commission facilities — including on a microwave oven. This is according to inspectors from Michigan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Worker representatives tell me the problem has been ongoing in garages like this one here in Litchfield since last year.
"I don't believe they was taking it as seriously as they should have," says Don Hobbs. Hobbs is President of the local Road Commission employee union TPOAM. He says union leadership turned to Michigan's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) last fall, feeling management wasn't doing enough to fix the issue.
"You hear people making comments like it was no big deal, 'it's just bat feces'…" says Hobbs.
MIOSHA confirmed to me it's been in touch with Road Commission management about the bat problem since last year.
A statement from MIOSHA says an August inspection of two Road Commission garages found "bat infestations" in both, indicating the lack of a "continuing and effective extermination program".
"Serious fungal infections in the lungs if you're inhaling those spores — especially in an enclosed space like this. When that stuff dries to where it's almost like dust — you're going to have it in the air," says Nicholas Bentley, Vice-President of TPOAM Local.
The inspections led to multiple citations and a $5000 fine — $2500 per garage.
After hearing about this, I talked with Road Commission Manager Bob Griffis. He insists management took immediate steps to respond each time MIOSHA forwarded a complaint.
"I mean, there's not a big gap in there between when we'd have a citation, and when we submitted a corrective action plan, and when they said it was corrected," says Griffis.
Griffis says an outside company has been working on the problem — and MIOSHA has been kept informed.
"We went back and forth with emails and everything, and showed them what we did for that complaint," recounts Griffis, "and each one of them they [MIOSHA] sent us a reply back saying 'OK, what you've done is satisfactory, and we consider that one closed'."
Griffis says he is committed to seeing it through: "We won't put anybody back in those garages until we feel and agree that it's safe, clean, and ready to go."
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