A Pompano Beach roofer’s third fine in 18 months for safety violations could be $146,000
Proposed fines for a Pompano Beach roofer keep rising as OSHA repeatedly says it leaves its workers at risk to fall.
But Action Roofing Services’ President says the workers put themselves at risk willingly, but not recklessly.
Action Roofing Services president Charles DiFalco said his company provides safety equipment and makes workers and supervisors go through all the OSHA training. But, DiFalco said, on single-story homes with moderate slopes, workers feel being tied down slows them down and creates other dangers. So, they eventually shed the safety equipment.
The federal agency’s latest proposed penalty for Action Roofing Services is $146,280 for safety violations at two worksites, in Port St. Lucie and Palm Beach Gardens. Of that amount, $112,524 is for repeat fall protection violations by Action, which has been dunned $43,976 for violations of that sort in 2018 and earlier in 2019.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an informal settlement reduced Action Roofing’s July 2018 fine for improper fall protection from $25,868 to $16,808. Action is still paying a $27,168 penalty from January 2019 that got settled down from $45,269 for a slightly different violation that still fell under not providing proper fall protection, and classified as a Repeat violation.
In Port St. Lucie, OSHA found workers had no fall protection while working on a 10-foot, 6-inch roof with a 5:12 pitch (a roof rising 5 inches every 12 inches in length or 22.62 degrees). Because that was the same violation that led to the January 2019 penalty, OSHA called it a Repeat violation and proposed a fine of $56,262.
Nearly two weeks later, OSHA found the same problem on a 10-foot high 4:12 roof at the Palm Beach Gardens worksite, and another possible $56,262 penalty.
Action also had another violation. At the Port St. Lucie worksite, a ladder used for workers to reach a 10-foot, 6-inch high roof stood unsecured in front of a garage door. OSHA found that safety risk worth $11,252.
A phone problem created the impression an Action employee had hung up twice on a Miami Herald reporter. The employee actually was trying to transfer the reporter to DiFalco’s cell phone in a low coverage area.
This story was originally published January 6, 2020 at 5:56 AM.
