Dive Brief:

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Roanoke, TX,-based Renda Contracting with one willful, 11 serious and two other violations on a Houston drainage project and fined the company $124,300, according to the Dallas Morning News.
• OSHA has investigated the contractor six times in the last 10 years and cited the firm with similar excavation-related safety penalties each time, according to the Insurance Journal. The willful violation citation was for exposing its workers to potential cave-ins.
• Renda, which has been awarded more than $450 million worth of Dallas projects in the last 10 years, disputed the claims and told the Morning News that it plans to appeal what it considers allegations that "are entirely without merit."

Dive Insight:

OSHA has said the persistent cases of unsafe trench and excavation conditions have prompted the agency to make a concerted effort to increase inspections at sites where active trenching and excavation operations are underway.

Earlier this year, OSHA fined bridge repair company Susquehanna Supply $140,000 in relation to a trench collapse and resulting fatality when a worker was buried in a trench after an adjacent wall collapsed. OSHA placed Susquehanna Supply in its Severe Violators Enforcement Program as a result of the incident. And in May, OSHA fined Illinois contractor Kellenberger Plumbing & Underground $59,290 for trench-related safety violations.

OSHA added approximately 520 companies to its Severe Violators Enforcement Program between 2010 and mid-April 2016, with construction firms representing 60% of those businesses. OSHA assigns contractors to the program for a variety of safety breaches, including those related to excavation and fall protection. Companies that OSHA labels as severe violators are more likely to see increased inspections and enforcement, and they are often used as a warning to other companies.

This week marked the beginning of OSHA's 78% fine increase, in compliance with a federally mandated rate increase to bring its penalty amounts in line with the Consumer Price Index — representing the first fine hike since 1990. The higher fines are in effect for infractions occurring after Nov. 2, 2015. While expected, OSHA's fine increase faced some pushback from construction industry groups who said they considered the tone of OSHA's rhetoric accusatory and would have preferred the agency to put more focus on safety education efforts.