A Jacksonville, Florida roofing contractor faces possible jail time after failing to abide by numerous court orders calling for remediation of safety hazards and the payment of over $2 million in penalties in an ongoing Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) case.

Travis Slaughter, the owner of Great White Construction Inc. and Florida Roofing Experts, has had his sites inspected by OSHA 10 times since 2017 “resulting in 21 willful, eight repeat, and one serious citations,” a U.S. Department of Labor press release said. Slaughter’s companies have received a total of 48 health and safety violations during the past decade at his worksites in Florida.

“The U.S. Department of Labor’s enforcement action and the litigation that followed shows we will use every resource available to hold Travis Slaughter and his companies, Great White Construction Inc. and Florida Roofing Experts, accountable for continually putting workers at risk of serious injury or worse,” Regional Solicitor of Labor Tremelle Howard in Atlanta said in the release.

OSHA filed a petition for civil contempt in August 2019 against Slaughter for failing to comply with orders issued in 2017 and 2018, the release said. The court approved the motion, ordering Slaughter to pay of $2,202,049 plus interest and fees and certify that his worksites were complying with federal regulations.

Slaughter failed to respond to the court order, forcing OSHA in fall 2021 to petition the court “to set aside as fraudulent Slaughter’s transfers of real property to family members, have him incarcerated for continued contempt, and order him to pay fees and costs,” the release said.

“The court’s recommendation is the best remedy to address the companies’ longstanding refusal to protect workers and pay the associated penalties, and is the result of lengthy litigation by the department’s Office of the Solicitor before OSHRC and confirmation the employer continued violating OSHA’s safety requirements,” the release said.