Recent federal inspections of Florida construction sites came to the conclusion that Jasper Contractors Inc., a Georgia-based roofing company, is continuing its seven-year history of ignoring safety and health laws and putting workers at risk of serious injury or death.
Since 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has completed 13 inspections at Jasper work sites and found 24 violations.
The agency has cited the roofing contractor with willful, serious and repeat violations for a lack of fall and eye protection and ladder safety.
To date, Jasper’s safety failures have resulted in OSHA assessing more than $516K in penalties for violating federal fall protection, personal protective equipment and other safety standards.
In 2015 alone, the agency opened five inspections at residential jobsites where Jasper employees were working, and found continued violations of the fall protection and eye protection standards.
In two of those 2015 inspections, in October and November, at residential job sites in Jacksonville, OSHA cited the company with four willful safety violations and $280,000 in proposed penalties in addition to another $140,000 in penalties for additional willful citations bringing total penalties issued against Jasper recently to $420,000.
Inspectors found the employer did not ensure employees were properly wearing fall protection equipment and exposed workers to the risk of falls from as high as 8-feet. They also found the employer failed to ensure workers operating powered nail guns used eye protection.
“Despite its claim that its employees ‘are adults who know the risks,’ Jasper Contractors has a legal responsibility to protect its employees,” said Brian Sturtecky, OSHA’s area director in Jacksonville. “This company’s dismissive approach toward workplace safety is illegal and irresponsible. OSHA will continue to use all its available resources to ensure workers are protected.”
Author Kori Shafer-Stack, Editor, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. is an expert in post-injury response procedures and part of the Amaxx team helping companies reduce their workers compensation costs by 20% to 50%. www.reduceyourworkerscomp.com. Contact: kstack@reduceyourworkerscomp.com.
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