Texas-based Arreola Masonry Fined for Workplace Hazards

Arreola Masonry has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) with three serious and three repeat safety violations for exposing workers to fall hazards at the company’s work site in Cedar Park, Texas. Proposed penalties total $46,200.

OSHA began an inspection April 27 at the company’s work site on South Lakeline Boulevard, where employees were building a car wash. OSHA investigators found numerous deficiencies in a makeshift platform on a forklift that employees were working from, including failing to provide a guardrail system.

Serious violations include failing to ensure the scaffold platform was safely designed and to obtain manufacturer approval for modifications to a forklift.

Repeat violations include failing to have a competent person inspect the scaffold for defects, provide scaffolding fall protection such as guardrails and train employees in scaffolding hazards. In September 2010, OSHA cited the company for similar violations with proposed penalties of $6,000.

Source: OSHA