Region 2 News Release:   NY 167
August 1, 2001
Contact: Chester J. Fultz
Phone: 212-337-2319

NEW YORK -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Four Star Acrylic Stucco, Inc. of Elmont, N.Y., and proposed penalties of $200,000 against the company for 10 alleged repeat violations of OSHA standards. The company has until August 14 to contest the citations.

The action results from OSHA inspections at two worksites in Long Island and Queens where the firm was engaged in applying stucco. One inspection was conducted on Jan. 24 at the construction site of a King Kullen supermarket at 160 Research Place in Central Islip. The other inspection, on March 27, covered a three-story office building at 163-09 Northen Blvd. in Auburndale, Queens. In both cases, an OSHA compliance officer observed employees applying exterior stucco while working from an unguarded scaffolding, according to OSHA area director Harvey Shapiro.

The alleged repeat violations, for which the employer was cited at each of the two locations, included:

• failure to provide fall protection systems on scaffolding more than ten feet above the ground;
• failure to provide safe access to a scaffold platform;
• failure to provide a fully planked platform;
• failure to provide protective helmets;
• failure to provide training to employees who work on scaffolds.

A repeat violation is one for which an employer has been previously cited for the same or a substantially similar condition and the citation has become a final order of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

In the past three years, Four Star Acrylic Stucco, of 175 Lucille Ave., Elmont, had been cited for these conditions at seven different locations in Long Island, New York City, Westchester and Northern New Jersey.

The investigation was conducted by OSHA's Long Island area office, located at 42-40 Bell Blvd., Bayside, N.Y., telephone (718) 279-9060.