OSHA has cited roofing contractor KG Framing and Construction LLC with 12 safety violations, including one willful and three repeat, for failing to provide roofers with protection from falls at a commercial shopping site in Maryland Heights. Proposed fines total $121,480. The company has now been cited six times for this violation.

"Each inspection with these findings is particularly disheartening because we encountered workers with limited English proficiency, who may be at increased risk for not understanding safety rules and procedures," said William McDonald, OSHA's area director in St. Louis.

Falls remain the leading cause of death in the construction industry.

The inspection was initiated on Oct. 12, 2012, after an OSHA inspector observed roofers on a pitched roof at a height greater than 14 feet without personal fall arrest systems. Other workers were wearing harnesses that were not properly attached to them or on anchor points. A willful citation was issued due to the company's failure to ensure all workers were provided fall protection and, when provided, allowing improper use when worn.

No eye protection with nail gun use

Three repeat violations involve allowing workers to use pneumatic nail guns without any form of eye or face protection, a lack of fall protection training and failing to extend ladders at least 3 feet above the landing surface. Similar violations were cited in 2010 and 2011 at four construction sites in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

More information on fall protection standards is available in English and Spanish at www.osha.gov/stopfalls.

Eight serious violations involve lack of hard hats, conducting regular inspections and providing guarding on power-transmission apparatus. Five of the serious violations involve ladder standards, such as allowing workers to use ladders with structural defects, carrying objects while on a ladder and risking losing balance and placing unsecured ladders in areas where they could be displaced.

The current citations can be viewed at www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/KG_Framing_and_Construction_710538_04112013.pdf*

Company placed in SVEP

Because of the hazards and the violations cited, KG Framing and Construction has been placed in OSHA's Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates targeted follow-up inspections to ensure compliance with the law.

This inspection was the sixth for KG Framing and Construction in the past six years. The company made no attempt to resolve the first findings in the three inspections, and penalties were sent to debt collection. The company contested two inspections from 2011 that were affirmed by a final order in December 2012.