ConDig (31-Oct-18).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined a Florida-based framing contractor $113,816 over fall hazards on a project in Panama City.

The agency cited Panama City Framing LLC for willfully failing to provide employees with fall protection while they performed roofing activities on the Florida construction site.

“The regional emphasis program places great importance on identifying and eliminating fall hazards,” said Jacksonville area OSHA office director Michelle Gonzalez.

“Employers who fail to provide required fall protection equipment are unnecessarily putting workers at risk of serious or fatal injuries.”

OSHA initiated an inspection on the project on June 28 this year as part of the Regional Emphasis Program for Falls in Construction.

Panama City Framing 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.

It comes as OSHA fined Pennsylvania-based Pipe Contracting LLC $331,101 earlier this month after an employee was fatally electrocuted on a construction project in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

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.