August 3, 2015
July 28, 2015
Inspection sites: 12357 Boston Harbor Drive, Jacksonville, Florida 32225.
Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the employer on July 24, 2015. The inspection was initiated on March 4, 2015, after the agency received two complaints concerning employees working on a residential roof without safety protection.
Inspection findings: OSHA issued two willful citations for failing to ensure employees were wearing eye protection while using pneumatic nail guns and exposing workers to falls from heights up to 13 feet by allowing them to work without fall protection while performing re-roofing activities.
During recent inspections in August and December 2014, OSHA inspectors observed workers of Jasper Contractors atop roofs at jobsites on Heather Grove Lane in Jacksonville and Shelley Drive in Green Cove Springs without fall protection. As a result, the Jacksonville contractor received seven citations, carrying proposed penalties of $186,200. The company has contested OSHA’s findings and will be mediating these and other contested citations before an Administrative Law Judge of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
OSHA history: Since 2007, Jasper has been inspected 15 times, resulting in 37 citations. The violations include willful, serious and repeat classifications for a lack of fall, eye and face protection and ladder safety.
Proposed penalties: $140,000
Quote: “Jasper’s management officials have been trained and know OSHA’s standards for protecting workers while performing roofing activities, but we continue to find this employer ignoring safety regulations and putting its employees at risk of death,” said Brian Sturtecky, OSHA’s area director in Jacksonville.
The citations can be viewed at: https://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/JasperContractors_1044055_0710_2015.pdf*
Jasper Contractors, a residential and commercial roofing company, has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. To ask questions; obtain compliance assistance; file a complaint or report amputations, losses of an eye, workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Jacksonville Area Office at 904-232-2895.
