Ashley Furniture, the nation's largest retailer of home furnishings, has entered into a corporate-wide settlement agreement with OSHA designed to protect workers from machine hazards. Under the settlement, Ashley will implement a number of safety measures to protect its employees and will submit status reports to OSHA annually during the two-year term of the agreement.

The first day on the job for a new employee ended tragically when the 21-year-old man suffered severe burns and the loss of four fingers on his right hand as he tried to clear a jam in a plastic molding machine. The man had been working for a few hours when the incident occurred at an Elyria manufacturer.