ConDig (14-Apr-21).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined a Florida-based framing and sheathing contractor $61,575 for repeat fall violations on a project in the Jacksonville area.

The agency said that it cited P & S Service Group Inc. for repeat violations for failing to ensure employees used a fall protection system while working from heights greater than 6 feet.

OSHA cited the company for a similar violation in October 2017.

“This employer has repeatedly disregarded the safety of their employees despite previous OSHA violations,” said OSHA area director Michelle Gonzalez in Jacksonville, Florida. “Employers must ensure that workers are protected from these well-known hazards.”

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

A 2016 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released 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. There was a rise in total construction worker deaths for each of the “Fatal Four” in 2016.

In March, OSHA fined a Cleveland-based contractor $73,533 after a 14-year-old boy working on a roof without required fall protection suffered critical injuries when he fell 20-feet to the ground.

In February, OSHA fined a Missouri-based plumbing contractor $299,590 for two repeated violations of trenching standards.