St. Louis Company Faces Fines for Reported Workplace Hazards

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued citations to Andre Tuckpointing and Brickwork, St. Louis, Mo., proposing penalties totaling $156,800 for alleged failure to protect workers from fall hazards.

OSHA initiated an inspection in April 2005 when employees of Andre Tuckpointing & Brickwork were reportedly observed exposed to fall hazards while working from a ladder jack scaffold at a St. Louis worksite. Citations were issued for three alleged double repeat violations, with a proposed penalty of $147,000, and two alleged serious violations, with a proposed penalty of $9,800.

“The fine of $156,800 sends a clear message that this Administration will not tolerate the violation of safety standards designed to protect workers,” said OSHA regional administrator Charles Adkins, CIH in Kansas City. “This employer is well aware of the standards that will protect workers from the fall hazards we found during our inspection, yet the double repeat violations reveal that the company continues to disregard the rules.”

The double repeat violations addressed the failure to protect employees from overhead hazards while working around and under a scaffold; unsafe scaffold access; and not providing a personal fall arrest system for use when working from a ladder jack scaffold greater than ten feet above the next lowest level. According to Adkins, OSHA cited the company in August 2003 and June 2004 for violations of the same standards or the same hazards.

Alleged serious violations address inadequately supported scaffold planking and the lack of employee instruction on scaffold use and recognition of hazards associated with the scaffold used.

Repeat violations are those 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. Serious violations occur when there is probability of death or serious physical harm and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard.

Andre Tuckpointing & Brickwork has 15 working days from receipt of the citations to comply with them, request and participate in an informal conference with the OSHA area director or contest them before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.