The Occupational Safety and Health Administration exists to help protect workers. It investigates accidents at workplaces and levies fines when appropriate. It also supports initiatives to make employees safer wherever they work. When a company here in North Carolina or elsewhere receives an OSHA violation, the hope is always that the citation will encourage the company to change the unsafe working environment. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always occur, as is the case with an out-of-state roofing company that has faced multiple fines in the past four years.
The roofing company in question has been cited for multiple violations relating to the failure to provide fall protection. Since the end of 2015, the company has faced five different fines of this nature. Authorities have raised the fine amount each time. The most recent fine proposed by OSHA is over $265,000.
The reason for half of the most recent citation stems from a failed inspection several months ago. The roofing company is accused of not having standard fall protection for workers that were tiling a roof. Another inspection just a couple of months after that resulted in the other half of the fine. Employees were, once again, not given proper fall protection, this time while cementing a slanted roof.
When a company fails to protect its employees, it puts their lives at risk. An unsafe working environment can lead to injury or even, in extreme cases, fatality. Employees who have been hurt on the job in North Carolina, or the families of workers who have lost their lives, have the right to file for workers’ compensation benefits. Doing so may assist employees or their loved ones in managing costs that can happen as a result of a workplace accident.
