In 2007, Eleazar Torres-Gomez fell into an industrial dryer at the Cintas plant where he worked. He was killed before anyone even noticed that he had fallen into the dryer from the moving conveyor belt where he was picking up loose clothes. The manufacturer of the equipment provides warnings about not having people on the conveyor belt while it is moving. Warnings on the belt caution Cintas employees not to get on the belt while it is moving. All Cintas employees receive training that warns them against getting onto the moving belts at any time. However, surveillance tapes show that at the Tulsa plant where Mr. Torres-Gomez worked and at other Cintas plants the practice was routine. The tapes show employees jumping on the moving belts to clear jams of clothing as they headed into the dryer chutes. Some tapes even showed employees sticking their knees into the chutes as a means of unclogging the clumps of wet laundry making their way into the dryer from the moving belts.

Cintas has an internal memo from its director of safety in 2004 that cautioned the plants about the problem and required plant managers to implement several safety procedures before trying to dislodge laundry. The procedures were not followed at the Tulsa plant.

In interviews with OSHA officials, employees said that they were under a great deal of pressure to keep the laundry moving and not shut down the belt. Cintas has per-piece goals for employees to meet, but Cintas officials say that the goals established for employees are reasonable.

Cintas has had 70 OSHA investigations since 2002, more than any other laundry company, and OSHA has found violations in 40 of the investigations. Forty-two of the violations found were "willful." Cintas feels that it has had more inspections because a union organizing effort is ongoing, and employees are reporting violations even when there are no violations.................

 Discussion Questions.
1. Would an employee's compensation package have any effect on his or her decisions at work about risk?
2. What are the values in conflict at Cintas that resulted in the accident and death?
3. What are the ethical issues in employee safety?