OSHA: Geddes contractor faces $96K in proposed fines for “repeat” violations

GEDDES, N.Y. — A Geddes roofing contractor is facing proposed fines of more than $96,000 for exposing “its employees to potentially fatal fall hazards” at a job site in Camillus.

Inspectors from the Syracuse-area office of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found employees of The Roofing Guys Inc. “exposed to falls of up to 20 feet” as they worked “without fall protection” atop a residential roof at 100 Gulf Rd., OSHA said in a news release issued Thursday.

They also found the employer allowed an additional fall hazard created by a roof-access ladder that “did not extend at least 3 feet above the roof’s edge for required stability.”

As a result of this latest inspection, OSHA cited The Roofing Guys Inc. for two “repeat” violations of workplace-safety standards. Proposed penalties for these violations total $96,027, OSHA said.

The Roofing Guys has issued a statement in response to the OSHA allegations.

“We deny all allegations that have been brought forth by OSHA. We are continually targeted by our competitors and OSHA inspectors and we will be contesting all charges,” the company said in a statement emailed to BJNN.

The contractor has “a history of safety violations,” according to OSHA.

OSHA had previously cited the company between 2011 and 2015 for “similar hazards” at other roofing jobs in Liverpool, Marcellus, Syracuse and North Syracuse.

This pattern of non-compliance is “disturbing,” Jeffrey Prebish, OSHA’s acting area director in Syracuse, said in the OSHA news release.

“This employer knows that effective fall protection is not just a necessity, it’s required by law. Workers are just one slip, trip or misstep away from a deadly or disabling fall each time fall protection is absent or inadequate. The Roofing Guys needs to take ongoing and effective action to ensure that all its employees are safeguarded at all its worksites,” said Prebish.

The company’s latest violations led OSHA to place The Roofing Guys Inc. in the agency’s “severe violators enforcement program.”

The program focuses on “recalcitrant employers that endanger” workers by committing “willful, repeat or failure-to-abate violations.”

Under the program, OSHA may inspect any of the employer’s facilities if it has “reasonable grounds to believe there are similar violations,” according to the news release.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, meet with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, OSHA said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com