Biggest OSHA fines of Q2 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic could possibly have altered the way OSHA conducts inspections and even limited enforcement in some spots of the country with high degrees of group transmission, but the agency is even now concentrating on contractors that set their employees’ life at danger by exposing them to two of the most really serious business threats — fall and excavation hazards. 

Falls are the top cause of accidental development deaths, along with caught-in/concerning, struck-by and electrocution incidents.

Right here are the agency’s most significant fines for the second quarter of this year:

Alejandro Vasquez Gallegos
Columbus, Ohio

Total Proposed Fines: $236,642

Standing: Pending Penalty Payment (below and below)

Contractor Alejandro Vasquez Gallegos picked up 4 really serious, two willful and two repeat violation citations in April soon after two inspections that OSHA initiated in November 2019 as aspect of a community emphasis method (LEP)  concentrated on slide security. The agency proposed $141,222 and $ninety five,420 for a full of $236,642.

Throughout an investigation of two independent projects, OSHA claimed its inspectors observed the exact same violations at both equally jobsites, which include personnel on roofs with no adequate slide security, staff with no basic safety glasses and personnel employing ladders improperly. According to OSHA documents, Vazquez Gallegos did not contest the citations, and the agency is awaiting payment. 

LEPs are executed at OSHA region offices or regional offices and target on hazards that are present in the office’s jurisdiction. In addition to qualified inspections, LEPs also involve agency outreach initiatives like mailings to community contractors, as effectively as coaching offered via contractor organizations. 
 

Unnerstall Contracting Co. LLC
Pacific, Missouri

Total Proposed Fines: $224,459

Standing: Violations Under Contest

OSHA initiated an inspection into a Unnerstall Contracting Co. LLC jobsite in December 2019 soon after a person of its staff was hurt in a trench collapse. The agency cited Unnerstall with 4 really serious and a few willful citation violations, proposed fines of $224,459 and put the business in its Serious Violator Enforcement Software, which suggests Unnerstall will be subject matter to added basic safety oversight. 

The agency claimed that Unnerstall did not use suitable trench protecting units, authorized staff to trip in the bucket of hydraulic excavators, enable water accumulate in the floor of the trench, unsuccessful to provide a secure suggests of egress from the trench, did not secure personnel from struck-by hazards and put excavated soil piles far too near to trench edges. The organization has contested the violations. 
 

D&R Building Inc.
Palatine, Illinois

Total Proposed Fines: $224,424

Standing: Pending Penalty Payment, Pending Abatement of Violations, Penalties Referred to Debt Selection

Two OSHA jobsite inspections at the end of final year netted D&R Building Inc. a person really serious, two willful and two repeat violation citations along with a full of $224,424 of proposed penalties, $126,462 on a person undertaking and $97,962 on an additional. 

The really serious violation was for failure to be certain that staff had been wearing suitable head security. The willful citations incorporated violations for not guarding personnel with suitable slide arrest and security units, and OSHA issued the repeat violations for failure to be certain right use of ladders and for failure to teach staff on slide hazards. Agency documents indicate that D&R did not contest the citations and that it is awaiting the contractor’s payment in entire.

ELQ Industries Inc.
New Rochelle, New York

Total Proposed Fines: $146,491

Standing: Pending Penalty Payment

ELQ Industries Inc. is a sitework and major civil contractor based in New Rochelle, New York. OSHA strike ELQ with a person willful, a person other and 4 really serious violations in the second quarter of this year and proposed full fines of $146,941.

Amongst ELQ’s citations was a violation of OSHA’s standard duty clause, which needs that companies preserve a office cost-free of regarded hazards that could cause really serious bodily harm or death to staff standard excavation demands, which include individuals similar to egress from trenches and excavation protecting units. OSHA documents do not indicate that ELQ contested the citations. 
 

Elmer Julio Perez Mendez
Cellular, Alabama

Total Proposed Fines: $138,118

Standing: Pending Abatement of Violations, Pending Penalty Payment

OSHA executed an inspection of a person of contractor Elmer Julio Perez Mendez’s jobsites soon after a employee fell from a height of 9 feet whilst executing roofing perform. The worker, who sustained really serious head injuries, was hospitalized and died seven days later. According to an agency report, the accident took place as the employee was taking away present weatherproofing product from a roof’s area. 

OSHA cited Perez Mendez for a person willful violation for not delivering suitable slide security and for two other violations similar to reporting accidents in a well timed manner. Perez Mendez did not contest the violations and is even now subject matter to the $138,118 wonderful.

Crown Roofing LLC
Sarasota, Florida

Total Proposed Fines: $134,937

Standing: Penalty Payment System in Position

OSHA claimed it cited Crown Roofing LLC, and fined the business $134,937, soon after an inspection at a person of the its projects in Tamarac, Florida, exposed that the business had exposed its staff to slide hazards by making it possible for them to conduct roofing perform with no suitable slide security. The agency claimed it has inspected Crown jobsites eighteen moments in the final six several years and has discovered proof of violations 12 moments. OSHA documents indicate that Crown negotiated this most recent wonderful down to $eighty,962 and has a payment approach in area with the agency.

Crown Safety Director Alek Mendez-Feliz advised Building Dive that he couldn’t say irrespective of whether OSHA was concentrating on the business unfairly with so numerous inspections and fines totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars in the final many several years but questioned the agency’s enforcement policies when it arrives to other roofing contractors. 

“We spend more than $1 million a year in basic safety coaching, manpower, products, compliance enforcement and specialised OSHA coaching for our administration staff,” Mendez-Feliz claimed. “Only Crown Roofing and a couple other providers our measurement in the state are equipped to commit these fiscal assets to basic safety, not since the agency states we have to but since is the suitable point to do for our staff. Where’s the enforcement to everybody else?”

Crown maintains that worker misconduct demands to be taken into consideration when OSHA is determining irrespective of whether to cite and wonderful providers like Crown, which, Mendez-Feliz claimed, spends so substantially time and energy on compliance. 

“A single would fairly imagine that at some level, personal obligation need to slide on the personnel not following the offered basic safety coaching,” he claimed.