Hiding Hazards

Black & Decker doesn’t think the public has the need to know

By Phil Mattera, Dirt Diggers Digest

When Stanley Works and Black & Decker announced merger plans in late 2009, the two firms made sure to describe themselves as producers of quality tools while claiming that their marriage would produce “significant cost synergies.” 

More than five years later, the combined company, Stanley Black & Decker, seems to be making progress on costs (and profits), but new revelations put into question its commitment to quality.

The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Justice Department recently announced that the firm’s Black & Decker unit would pay $1.575 million to settle allegations that it “knowingly violated federal reporting requirements with respect to cordless electric lawnmowers that started spontaneously and that continued to operate after consumers released the lawnmower handles and remove the safety keys.” 

In other words, Black & Decker has been selling products with uncontrollable spinning blades.

While CPSC press releases are normally neutral in tone, the statement on Black & Decker was unusually harsh. Agency chairman Elliott Kaye was quoted as saying: “Black & Decker’s persistent inability to follow these vital product safety reporting laws calls into question their commitment to the safety of their customers.”

What had apparently ticked off Kaye was that this was the fifth time the commission had cited Black & Decker for reporting violations. The previous case was in 2011, when the company had to pay $960,000 to settle allegations that it failed to report a defect in one of its Grasshog trimmer/edgers that could cause parts to loosen and become projectiles.

Most CPSC civil penalties are brought against companies that fail to report defects and accidents in a timely manner: “That means within 24 hours, not months or years as in Black & Decker’s case,” Kaye stated with obvious annoyance. Assistant Attorney General Benjamin Mizer was also blunt: 

“Not for the first time, Black & Decker held back critical information from the public about the safety of one of its products.” 

The company was said to have received more than 100 consumer complaints and accident reports from lawnmower customers over a period of years before it decided to share the information and recall the products.

Black & Decker is not the only large “quality” manufacturer that has been accused of essentially covering up dangerous defects in its products. Earlier this year, General Electric had to pay the CPSC $3.5 million — one of the largest civil penalties in the commission’s history — to settle allegations that it failed to report “an unreasonable risk of serious injury” relating to some of its ranges containing connectors that could overheat and cause fires.

Large companies these days profess to be committed to transparency and accountability, but some are still inclined to hide their dirty (and dangerous) secrets.