Contractor Fined $317,587 for Repeat Fall Protection Violations
- Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division has fined Luka’s General Construction LLC of Beaverton $317,587 for alleged repeated job safety violations. The company has appealed the citation.
- Inspectors cited the company after visiting a jobsite in the town of Molalla where it was working on the roof of a two-story house. They said it was not using any systems to protect workers from falls of up to 19 feet. Employees wore fall protection harnesses, but the harnesses were not connected to any anchors.
- Inspectors also found other safety violations, some of which were the company’s fifth and sixth repeat violations within two years.
OSHA Opens Investigation Into Fatal Incident at Wood Products Maker
- The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has an open investigation into a fatal incident at Northern Crossarm, a Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin-based company that makes treated wood products, the U.S. Department of Labor confirmed.
- No details about the incident, including the identity of the person who died, have been released. The Department of Labor said nothing more will be disclosed until the investigation wraps up.
- OSHA has up to six months to complete its investigation.
Builder Fined $42,000 After Labourer Falls 3.4 Metres From Unsecured Ladder
- The principal contractor on a four-townhouse project in Brighton, Australia, PC Whitehall & Sons Pty Ltd, was fined 42,000 Australian dollars ($29,000) and ordered to pay AUS$5,129.66 in costs after a laborer fell about 10 feet from an unsecured ladder. The Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court said that without the company’s early guilty plea it would have imposed a conviction and a AUS$95,000 fine. WorkSafe Victoria brought the prosecution under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004.
- The laborer, employed by a subcontractor, climbed a portable ladder to hand tools to workers on the first floor in May 2024 and fell. He was found unconscious and treated for a fractured or dislocated collarbone and symptoms consistent with a concussion.
- Inspectors found compliant fall protection was missing from the perimeter edge and internal voids. The ladder was not secured. Improvement notices were issued to the principal contractor and the subcontractor.
- The company pleaded guilty to two charges: failing to install passive fall prevention and failing to ensure installed guard rails were compliant. The court called it “a significant departure from the statutory duty” and said an accident was likely and “inevitably serious.” It credited the company’s good character, lack of prior matters, early plea and full cooperation.