ConDig (28-Nov-18).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has 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) face the maximum allowable penalty of $129,336 each.

OSHA launched a probe as part of its Regional Emphasis Program on Falls in Construction after receiving a complaint that employees were performing residential roofing activities without fall protection. OSHA cited the companies for failing to ensure workers were attached to a fall protection system.

The companies have 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 month, OSHA fined two Florida contractors after a worker suffered crushing injuries at a construction project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The agency cited Tom Krips Construction Inc. and Etherna Services Inc. after a lattice boom section of a crane fell onto the employee during disassembly, crushing his foot and ankle.

OSHA fined a Florida-based framing contractor $113,816 over fall hazards on a project in Panama City late last month.

It also recently fined Pennsylvania-based Pipe Contracting LLC $331,101 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.