OSHA is proposing $146,000 in penalties against T&C Construction in Hoover, Ala., for safety violations. The inspection was initiated based on a Regional Emphasis Program on Falls when an OSHA compliance officer observed that employees laying brick on a residential house were exposed to a fall hazard.

The company is being cited with 11 repeat violations with proposed penalties of $131,200. The violations include the company's lack of a safety program; employees not wearing personal protective equipment; an extension cord being made with parts for permanent installation being on the ground; employees using electrical branch circuits that did not have a ground-fault circuit interrupter; several deficiencies in scaffolding procedures; and the employer's failure to develop, implement or maintain a written hazard communications program for employees working with mortar or cement.

The employer also is being cited with five serious safety violations and $14,800 in proposed penalties. These violations include no guards on the gear or pulleys on the mixing machine, using an extension cord that had the grounding prong removed, scaffold planking that was not designed by a qualified person, damaged planking that was not replaced or removed, no guardrails installed on a ramp being used, and frames of the fabricated scaffold were not joined together with coupling or stacking pins.

"Previous to this inspection, T&C Construction was made aware of what needs to be addressed to protect its workers from injury, but the company choose not to act and continue to put its employees at risk," said Roberto Sanchez, director of OSHA's Birmingham Area Office. "They should not wait for death or serious injury to occur to one of their employees before they make the necessary changes."