Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety inspectors found a Middleburg, Ohio, roofing contractor repeatedly failed to protect workers from life-threatening hazards on various job sites, the U.S. Department of Labor reported recently.
During a six-day investigation in June 2022, inspectors twice witnessed roofers employed by C.R.H. Roofing LLC being exposed to "deadly fall hazards" at two separate job sites, "continuing a pattern of disregard for workplace safety dating back to 2019," the DOL reported Nov. 30.
"At both worksites, inspectors observed roofing workers at heights greater than 6 feet without fall protection and lacking eye protection while using pneumatic nail guns," the DOL report states. "The company also allowed ladders to be used improperly."
OSHA proposed $363,890 in fines against C.R.H. Roofing after discovering four willful and two repeat violations during inspections on June 3 and June 9, according to the report.
“Despite being warned on June 3, 2022, that their failures to protect workers from falls violated federal law, C.R.H. Roofing scoffed at OSHA inspectors, and six days later, we found them committing the same violations," OSHA Director in Cleveland Howard Eberts said in the report.
"This employer continually refuses to protect its workers by following OSHA and industry-recognized safety regulations,” Ebert said.
C.R.H. Roofing was fined more than $51,000 in penalties after three previous inspections in 2019 and 2021, the report states. The fines remain unpaid, and OSHA has placed C.R.H. Roofing in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, the agency reports.
C.R.H. Roofing now owes more than $414,000 in OSHA fines for its workplace safety violations, the DOL reports.
“Too many roofers die each year needlessly because their employers fail to use fall protection,” Eberts said in the report.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 1,008 construction workers killed on the job in 2020, 351 died in falls from elevation.
