Contractor Safety, Enforcement and Inspection, Fall Protection, Personnel Safety

ALJ Orders Roofing Contractor to Pay OSHA Fine

An administrative law judge (ALJ) with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission ordered a Rochester, New York, commercial roofing company to pay $16,782 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines for serious fall and ladder violations, OSHA announced October 24.

The ALJ upheld the agency’s citation of Elmer W. Davis Inc. for allowing workers to use an unsafe ladder and exposing an employee to a 40-foot fall hazard as they stood near the edge of a roof to guide a crane’s operation. However, one citation for fall protection methods on a low-slope roof was vacated.

In an April 2022 inspection, OSHA found that workers performing roofing work on the Village of Newark’s municipal building weren’t using required fall protection equipment.

The employer contested OSHA’s citations before the review commission. Following a trial at the review commission, the ALJ announced that the Labor Department’s Office of the Solicitor proved Elmer W. Davis knew of the fall protection violation. The judge concluded that the company had failed to implement its own safety program adequately, and the violation was readily visible to the company foreman.

The judge rejected the company’s defense, which cited “unpreventable employee misconduct.” The ALJ also rejected the company’s defense based on Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The judge concluded that Elmer W. Davis could have no reasonable expectation of privacy on the rooftop of a construction site that it didn’t own. The ALJ found that the OSHA inspector acted reasonably during the inspection.

“Falls from roofs and other elevations are the leading cause of death in the construction industry, needlessly killing hundreds of workers each year and leaving many more with permanent and often disabling injuries,” Jeffrey Prebish, OSHA’s Syracuse, New York, area office director, said in an agency statement. “Elmer W. Davis Inc. violated mandatory federal safety regulations and put workers in danger.”

Additionally, Jeffrey S. Rogoff, New York regional solicitor of labor, noted, “As the U.S. Department of Labor’s vigorous litigation showed, and the judge appropriately held, Elmer W. Davis Inc. failed to protect employees from fall hazards and cannot claim permanent and complete freedom to commit violations. The department takes protecting employees from fall hazards very seriously.”

At the National Safety Council’s (NSC) annual Congress and Expo in September, OSHA revealed its “top 10” most cited safety standards, which included its construction industry standards for fall protection, ladders, and fall protection training.

The top, third, and seventh most cited standards in fiscal year (FY) 2024 were:

  • Fall Protection—General Requirements (29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1926.501): 6,307 violations;
  • Ladders (§1926.1053): 2,573 violations; and
  • Fall Protection—Training Requirements (§1926.503): 2,050 violations.

The NSC noted that falls accounted for 865 fatal injuries in 2022. In June, workers’ compensation insurer Liberty Mutual revealed falls to a lower level were among the top 10 causes of employer workers’ compensation claims, costing employers $5.68 billion in claims. Losses from falls to a lower level were exceeded only by overexertion from outside sources and falls on the same level.

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