OSHA levies $119,000 fee on Pasco contractor

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2009/01/19/daily61.html

Friday, January 23, 2009

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is proposing $119,000 in penalties against WDG Construction Inc. for seven safety violations that exposed its employees to possible injury or death at two of its construction sites.

OSHA is proposing two willful citations with $99,000 in penalties after inspections conducted in July and August 2008 revealed that the Wesley Chapel-based company violated OSHA standards by “failing to provide employees with protection from cave-ins while they worked in trenches,” a release said. The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

The agency is proposing a repeat violation with an $8,000 penalty after it found that material excavated from a trench was placed too close to the edge of the excavation, making it possible for the soil to fall back into the trench where employees were working. The company had been cited for a similar violation following a 2007 inspection, a release said.

Four serious violations with penalties totaling $12,000 are being proposed for the company’s failure to control water from seeping and accumulating in trenches, not providing proper ladders for employees working in trenches, not training employees to recognize unsafe conditions and failing to instruct employees in ladder safety.

FULL story at link.

[Tikki]

1. Good....I'm not sure where the two dangerous sites were...

located...but, if they were anywhere near Pasco...then it is about time that
these out of the way areas are searched and made accountable.

Hope whoever brought this to OSHA attention will not be ostracized.


Tikki