Roofing Contractor Fined $501k for Willful Fall Exposures

Monday, April 18, 2022 | 0

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued three egregious willful citations, five serious citations and one other-than-serious citation to an Augusta, Maine-based contractor for willfully exposing employees to fall hazards.

OSHA investigators found ARP Renovation LLC/A.R.P. Roofing & Siding LLC, owned and operated by Andrew Raymond Pollock, willfully exposed its employees to fall hazards at a Hampden, Maine, residential construction site on multiple occasions during the same inspection.

OSHA proposed a total of $501,376 in penalties due to the company's refusal to provide fall protection and other safeguards for employees after repeatedly informing Pollock of the requirement. The Maine company operates as a single entity with Medford, New Jersey-based ARP Renovation LLC, also solely owned and operated by Pollock.

Responding to reports of workers being exposed to fall hazards while working on the roofs of buildings, OSHA inspectors found at least five employees exposed to falls of 10 to 18 feet to the ground and pavement below. OSHA standards require that employers provide fall protection to employees engaged in residential construction activities 6 feet or more above a lower level.

After refusing to correct this hazard, OSHA posted an imminent danger notice at the site. The agency cited the companies for three egregious willful violations for not providing guardrails, safety nets, personal fall arrest systems or other safeguards, accounting for $435,081 of the total proposed penalties.

OSHA also cited the employer for five serious violations and one other-than-serious violation, accounting for $66,295 in proposed penalties, for not providing employees with a training program about fall hazards or ladder safety, ensuring ladder side rails were extended 3 feet above the upper landing surface, failure to provide head protection and maintaining OSHA 300 illness and injury records.

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