A Massachusetts seafood processor and a staffing firm were cited and fined, according to the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration in the death of a temporary worker. The citations were announced this week, but the incident happened on Jan. 16.

The worker was a 35-year-old sanitation supervisor, and he was caught in the rotating parts of the shucking machine he was cleaning at Sea Watch International Ltd.’s New Bedford, Mass., plant, OSHA reported. The worker was identified as Victor Gerena by the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, a private group.

Sea Watch’s proposed fines total $35,410.

OSHA also cited Workforce Unlimited Inc., a Johnston, R.I.-based temporary employment agency that supplied temps. Workforce Unlimited’s proposed fines total $9,000.

The companies have 15 days from the receipt of citations and proposed penalties to comply, meet informally with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings.

Sea Watch employs 15 full-time workers at its New Bedford plant, and 185 of the temporary workers at the plant were supplied by Workforce Unlimited.

“Host employers need to treat temporary workers as they treat existing employees,” said Robert Hooper, OSHA’s acting regional administrator for New England. “Temporary staffing agencies and host employers share joint responsibility for temporary employees’ safety and health. It is essential that both employers and staffing agencies comply with all relevant OSHA requirements.”

Sea Watch was cited for failing to implement lockout/tagout procedures that protect workers who clean machinery, according to OSHA. The violations include failure to provide a lockout device; incomplete lockout/tagout procedures; not conducting periodic inspections of these procedures to ensure that all requirements were being met; and failure to train all affected sanitation employees in lockout/tagout procedures. OSHA also found that plant employees were exposed to fall hazards and were not trained in up-to-date chemical hazard communication methods.

Workforce Unlimited was also cited for three serious violations for lack of lockout/tagout procedures, lack of chemical hazard communication training and for exposing workers to ladder hazards, according to OSHA. Workforce Unlimited Inc. was cited as a joint employer because it had a supervisor on-site with knowledge of the working conditions. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

OSHA has recently focused on temporary worker safety, and OSHA and the American Staffing Association signed an alliance agreement on temporary worker safety.