When workers are on the job they are often pressed to focus on their tasks. Safety should be a major concern, too, but the steps to prevent workplace injuries from occurring too often get missed and many Pennsylvania employers fail to take even rudimentary safety precautions the way they should. The result can be debilitating injury. Fatal accidents occur, too.
One might think that employers would be desperate to avoid such issues; if not out of basic concern for the well-being of the workers they depend on to get the jobs done, then for the sake of limiting expensive liability issues that can surface when workplace accidents occur. But that isn’t always the case, as a recent announcement by federal safety regulators reflects.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration publicized the fact that it is seeking fines of more than $73,000 against a Lansdowne construction company. Safety investigators say the stucco and stone application firm has been repeatedly cited for failing to take precautions against possible worker falls. Specifically, work platforms have been found to be lacking proper bracing and planking. Company managers have also been faulted for not making daily checks to ensure safe workplace conditions.
According to OSHA, the company has a history of such oversights going back every year to 2010. The agency says the investigation that resulted in the latest citations didn’t come because of any workplace injury event. That may be good news for the workers employed by this company up to this point, but it doesn’t offer much reassurance about their possible fates in the future.
At the time this post is written, it’s not known whether the company has contested the proposed fine as would be its right under OSHA regulations.
Source: The Delaware County Times, “Feds: Lansdowne construction company fined for fall, safety violations,” March 12, 2013