Region 4 News Release:   USDOL: 01-117
Wed., July 11, 2001
Contact: Les Grove
Phone: (813) 626-1177

SARASOTA, Fla. -- The U.S. Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration today cited All Walls Construction, Inc., and proposed $122,850 in penalties for willful and serious scaffold safety violations at a Sarasota, Fla., construction site. All Walls had been hired to perform stucco work at the site.

Following a safety inspection initiated in January, OSHA fined All Walls $98,000 for two willful safety violations -- allowing scaffolds to be erected, dismantled and altered without supervision by a qualified, competent person and failing to provide required training about scaffold hazards.

"Company managers knew no competent person was on-site to supervise erection and dismantling of scaffolding but made a conscious decision to allow the work to proceed," said Les Grove, OSHA's acting area director, Tampa. OSHA issues willful citations when there is intentional disregard of safety standards and regulations.

Both North Carolina and South Carolina state agencies inspected All Walls in 1998 and issued citations for the same violations found in Sarasota. In addition, the general contractor on the job site advised the sub-contractor to abate the scaffold-related hazards on several occasions.

OSHA proposed additional penalties totaling $24,850 for seven serious scaffolding violations, including unsafe working decks, a hazardous scaffold walkway, no safe means of access to the scaffold, absence of guardrails, and lack of worker protection from objects falling from the scaffold. Serious citations are issued when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard.

Lawrenceville, Ga.-based All Walls has 15 working days to contest OSHA's citations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Inspection of the Sarasota worksite was conducted by OSHA's Tampa area office located at 5807 Breckenridge Parkway, Suite A; telephone: (813) 626-1177.