But a statement released from the Cincinnati-based company called claims it was not committed to employee safety "completely inaccurate," and that several improvements have been made since the death.

"This is a company that made an awful lot of money last year, and, for the life of me, continues to do nothing to help their employees remain safe and be able to go to work," said U.S. Rep. Phil Hare, D-Ill., who spoke during a news teleconference before a hearing on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration's role in enforcing workplace safety at companies such as Cintas. "This is a company who, I think, goes out of their way and would rather pay a fine than keep their workers safe."

Hare was joined by Reps. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.; Tim Bishop, D-N.Y.; Donald Payne, D-N.J., and Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H. All are members of a House subcommittee that deals with workplace issues.

Five former and current Cintas employees also talked about working conditions in some of the company's plants, including long hours, poor pay, lack of trained staff to maintain key equipment and injuries such as back, shoulder and arm pain.

Hare was among several lawmakers who sought a federal investigation last year into the death of 46-year-old Cintas employee Eleazar Torres-Gomez.

Gomez, a father of four, had worked at the Tulsa Cintas plant since 2000. Last March, while working alone in an area where clothes are washed in an automated system, Gomez died after becoming trapped for at least 20 minutes in a dryer that can reach a temperature of 300 degrees.

Days after he died, federal lawmakers called for the probe, saying the incident could have been prevented because a 2005 OSHA memo warned about the need for special protection from the type of equipment used at the Tulsa plant.

Cintas, which has 34,000 employees in hundreds of locations, faces a proposed OSHA fine of $2.78 million over the Tulsa plant death. Negotiations to settle the matter are slated to continue next month, company spokeswoman Heather Trainer said Wednesday.

The company also faces a lawsuit filed last summer on behalf of the family of Torres-Gomez.

"We look to Cintas and OSHA to tell us what they've learned from this tragedy," Rep. Woolsey said. "We think OSHA and corporate America could do much better than they are doing now."

In a statement released Wednesday, Cintas said it formed an Executive Safety Council made up of company executives and three nationally recognized safety experts after the Tulsa incident.

It also says it has added trained personnel to serve as safety monitors at every laundry where automatic or semiautomatic equipment is used.