Corner Construction Corp., a Zion, Illinois, contractor, faces $266,175 in new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fines for again failing to provide fall protection for its employees, the agency announced December 31.
OSHA cited Corner Construction with one willful, one repeat, and one serious violation.
Agency investigators found workers performing roofing work on a residential structure without required fall protections, marking the second incident in six months and the fifth in two years.
In August 2024, agency inspectors observed employees of Miguel A. Esquina Reyes, operating as Corner Construction Corp., working without legally required fall protection equipment atop a residential structure in Glencoe. The agency cited the employer for allowing employees to work without fall protection at heights greater than 6 feet and for the unsafe use of ladders.
Falls from heights are one of construction’s “fatal four” safety hazards, along with caught-in/-between, electrocution, and struck-by hazards. In the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) latest Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), released in mid-December, the bureau noted that most fatal falls in construction (260 in 2023) were from a height of between 6 and 30 feet, and 67 fatal falls were from a height of more than 30 feet. Portable ladders and stairs were the primary sources of 109 fatalities in construction.
OSHA cited a repeat violation in February 2024 for Corner Construction’s failure to provide fall protection at a Downers Grove worksite, proposing penalties of $19,015. The 2024 infractions continue a series of similar violations cited after three inspections in 2022 and 2023.
According to the agency, the company is liable for $82,000 in unpaid OSHA penalties.
OSHA’s construction industry fall protection standard has remained its most frequently cited standard for 14 years, OSHA announced this past fall at the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Safety Congress & Expo in Orlando. In fiscal year (FY) 2024, which ended September 30, the agency cited 6,307 violations of 29 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) §1926.501.
OSHA launched a National Emphasis Program (NEP) of outreach and enforcement in 2023 for falls from height across all industries. The agency launched its NEP in connection with its annual National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction and the industry’s “Safety Week.”
Under OSHA’s NEP, its compliance safety and health officers (CSHO) can make “self-referrals,” opening inspections whenever they observe someone working at heights during their regular workday travel or other OSHA inspections.
The outreach portion of the program focuses on educating employers on effective ways to keep their workers safe.
“OSHA often finds contractors violating the same safety regulations repeatedly, because they believe their workers will not fall victim to injury,” Sukhvir Kaur, OSHA’s Chicago North area office director, said in an agency statement.
“It takes just seconds to lose footing, to fall off a roof and suffer serious and all-too-often fatal injuries. Miguel Reyes continues to show a chronic disregard for safe work operations and a willingness to jeopardize his employees’ lives and well-being.”