For the second time this year, OSHA has accused a Paul Bange Roofing subcontractor of either knowingly or carelessly putting roof workers at risk of falling while working at a Davie office park.
Both sets of federal citations with a “willful” violation were issued to A1A Roofing Contractors’ on Sept. 29. The first, with three violations from an April 6 inspection by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, was worth $82,504 of proposed fines. The second, with five citations from a June 15 inspection, wants to dun A1A Roofing $80,540.
Both concern work done at Crexent Business Center at Flamingo Commons for Paul Bange Roofing, which faces a proposed $10,938 fine. It’s Paul Bange’s only OSHA violation in the last 10 years.
The roofing company known throughout the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area through its TV commercials (“I’m Paul, give me a call!”), “failed to conduct frequent and regular inspections to ensure employees were working safely,” OSHA said.
Antonio Santiago, who runs A1A Roofing out of a Loxahatchee home, didn’t want to answer questions about the violations when reached by phone. A Miami Herald reporter was told to submit questions to Paul Bange Roofing by email. The company didn’t answer that email.
“Our inspectors found the primary contractor and subcontractor at a Davie work site failing to protect workers from the risks of falls from elevation, the construction industry’s leading cause of death,” OSHA Area Office Director Condell Eastmond said. “Fall dangers are widely known in the roofing industry as are the protections that employers must legally use to prevent them, so neither A1A Roofing nor Paul Bange Roofing have a valid excuse for putting their workers in jeopardy of serious or fatal injuries.”
A1A Roofing Contractors’ first set of OSHA citations
The two sets of citations from the work at Crexent give A1A a trio in an 18-month period from the U.S. Department of Labor’s workplace safety division.
On March 17, 2022, an OSHA inspector came to Margate’s Fiesta Townhomes after a complaint and found “employees were exposed to fall hazards while working on a roof waterproofing system approximately 21 feet from ground level without a means of fall protection,” meaning a safety net, guardrails or a personal fall arrest system.
That “serious” violation accounted for $5,801 of the total proposed fine of $6,302. Another violation classified as “serious” concerned failing to train workers how to recognize and prevent fall hazards.
A1A settled a $6,302 proposed fine to $3,982.
A1A working at Crexent for Paul Bange
Online records say a complaint brought an OSHA inspector to 12555 Orange Dr., a two-floor building at Crexent, on April 6.
“Employees were exposed to approximately 32-foot fall hazards during the tear-off process on a 5:12 pitched roof due to lack of fall protection equipment,” OSHA said.
That was the “willful” violation, which OSHA describes as “the employer either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement (purposeful disregard) or acted with plain indifference to employee safety.”
A repeat violation concerning the training accounted for the rest of the $82,504 proposed fine.
OSHA returned to Crexent on June 15, this time the building at 12535 Orange Dr., after another complaint.
This time, the inspector said there was a willful violation because “employees were exposed to approximately 12.6-foot fall hazards during the installation process on a roof due to lack of fall protection equipment.”
Also, in a serious violation, “anchorage points used for attachment of personal fall arrest equipment were not independent of any anchorage point being used to support or suspend platforms” because “two employees were tied-off to the same anchorage point as part of their personal fall arrest system.”
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.
www.miamiherald.com
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article280650370.html
