Dive Brief:
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Illinois contractor Don Bosco, LLC, for one willful and seven serious safety violations and fined the company $103,000, the agency announced in a statement.
- OSHA said that during an inspection of a single-family residential framing project in Elgin, IL, an inspector observed eight employees constructing rafters without fall protection, such as guardrail systems, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems. The OSHA inspector found these workers were exposed to falls in excess of 17 feet while building scaffolds and 19 feet while construction rafters.
- OSHA also said the company exposed workers to scaffold hazards, failed to train workers on fall hazards, and neglected to provide hard hats. OSHA currently has two other cases open with Don Bosco resulting from inspections in June 2015 and August 2015, when they observed similar violations.
Dive Insight:
"Don Bosco has demonstrated a deliberate lack of concern for the safety of its employees by refusing to comply with fall protection standards," said Jake Scott, OSHA’s area director in North Aurora.
This is the latest in a string of fall protection violation cases this year. OSHA recently fined a Georgia contractor $65,000 for not providing adequate fall protection to his employees, and other contractors in North Dakota, Wisconsin, New York and Arizona have also been cited and fined for similar violations, some resulting in worker injuries and deaths.
OSHA has created a fall prevention campaign in partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and NIOSH’s National Occupational Research Agenda to provide detailed information, in English and Spanish, on fall protection standards.
In August 2016, OSHA is expected to raise its fines approximately 80% in order to align with the Consumer Price Index — the first increase of OSHA fines since 1990.
