ConDig (25-Jan-19). The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined a Fort Myers, Florida-based roofing contractor $91,466 after exposing workers to dangerous falls on a residential project in Naples.
The agency cited Ad-Ler Roofing Inc for failing to protect employees from fall hazards and comes just a month after the company was cited for the same fall protection violations at an Odessa construction project.
“Companies are required to provide employees with fall protection when they work at heights of 6 feet or higher,” said Fort Lauderdale OSHA area office director Condell Eastmond.
“Ad-Ler Roofing is putting workers at risk of serious injury by failing to comply with OSHA’s fall protection standards.”
OSHA initiated the inspection on July 23 last year as part of its regional emphasis program for falls in construction after inspectors observed the company’s employees performing roofing activities without fall protection.
Ad-Ler Roofing has 15 business days to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
Earlier this week, OSHA fined two utility contractors $12,934 each following a fatal explosion and fire at a Wisconsin construction project last summer.
Also, OSHA fined a Missouri-based roofing contractor $56,910 earlier this month after an employee suffered a fatal fall when a roof truss collapsed. The agency said that it had cited Franklin County Construction LLC for one repeat violation for failing to ensure anchorage points and five serious safety violations for failing to protect workers from structural collapse and fall hazards.
In November, OSHA fined two Florida-based roofing contractors for exposing employees to fall hazards on a project in St. Augustine. Derek Williams (operating as Elo Restoration Inc) and Travis Slaughter (operating as Florida Roofing Experts Inc) faced the maximum allowable penalty of $129,336 each.
It followed an announcement that it had fined two Florida contractors after a worker suffered crushing injuries at a construction project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
A 2016 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released in December showed that the rate of fatal injuries in the construction industry increased 6% in 2016 to 991 worker deaths compared with 937 in 2015.
BLS figures showed that falls, struck by objects, electrocutions and caught-in/between accounted for 63.7% of all construction worker deaths in last year. There was a rise in total construction worker deaths for each of the “Fatal Four” in 2016.