A home improvement business based in Hamburg, NY failed to provide fall protection for workers at a Lackawanna site, resulting in heavy fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA.)
In April 2014, OSHA inspectors saw employees working on roofs and scaffolds without fall protection, exposing them to potentially fatal falls of up to 20 feet. Management also failed to provide mandatory personal protective equipment (PPE), like hard hats and fall harnesses.
After the assessment, OSHA inspectors warned employers at the site to use fall protection regularly for all workers. When they returned to the site the following day, they saw that all of the fall protection had been removed, and workers were once again exposed.
Falls kill more construction workers than any other workplace hazard, and injure thousands of workers every year. Even falls from reasonable heights can lead to permanent injury, so OSHA regulations state that all employees working higher than six feet from the ground have mandatory fall protection.
Every day, millions of employers put their employees in danger by ignoring commonplace workplace hazards. It has been proven that avoiding accidents and injuries is the most efficient way to manage a workplace, but some managers will continue to cut corners, even after they have been warned.
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[Did You Know: Falls were responsible for more than 150 deaths and 100,000 injuries in 2012.]
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Source: https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=NEWS_RELEASES&p_id=26565
