An administrative law judge with the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission on Friday affirmed a serious fall-protection citation against a Rochester, New York, roofing company that failed to adequately warn employees of conditions that led to a worker being seriously injured in a fall.
The $8,848 fine issued to Elmer W. Davis Inc. stands after the judge found that a supervisor’s placing plywood over a depression in a roof at a warehouse in Rochester in September 2020 did not sufficiently warn workers that the area was unsafe, according to Secretary of Labor v. Elmer W. Davis Inc.
The company claimed that a supervisor had told workers to put construction cones around the plywood to warn of the hazard but that the cones were never placed there.
“The totality of the evidence establishes that (the company) failed to exercise such reasonable diligence by inadequately informing employees of the precise location of the unsafe depression on the roof while nevertheless determining that the roof possessed the requisite strength and structural integrity to allow the employees to resume working on the roof after covering the depression with the unmarked and unsecured sheet of plywood,” the judge wrote.
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https://www.businessinsurance.com/article/20230828/NEWS08/912359503/OSHA-fine-for-roofing-accident-affirmed,-Secretary-of-Labor-v-Elmer-W-Davis-In
