ConDig (17-Jun-20).  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has fined roofing contractor Elmer Julio Perez, operating as Julio Perez, $138,118 after a worker fatally fell from a residential roof at a Mobile, Alabama, construction project. 

The agency cited Perez for failing to ensure that employees used fall protection and report a hospitalization within 24 hours and a fatality within 8 hours, as required.

“Allowing employees to work at heights without using proper fall protection methods increases the risk of serious or fatal injuries,” said OSHA Mobile area director Jose Gonzalez. 

“Employers have an obligation to ensure the working conditions are free of 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.

In May, OSHA fined two Florida-based contractors a total of $44,146 after a worker fell to his death on a project in Miami, 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. There was a rise in total construction worker deaths for each of the “Fatal Four” in 2016.