Roofing company faces $1.2M in fines for fall violations

A Washington roofing company faces fines of $1.2 million from the Washington Department of Labor & Industries for allegedly repeatedly putting its workers at risk, the department said in a statement Thursday.

The L&I investigated three job sites run by Snohomish, Washington-based Allways Roofing Inc. between December 2020 and March 2021 following multiple complaints that roofing workers had no fall protection. Inspectors issued the company 12 willful serious violations for workers performing roofing work on steeply pitched roofs with no fall protection, improper use of ladders, and workers using pneumatic nail guns without eye protection. According to the statement, all but one of the violations were repeat violations.

The department has cited Allways Roofing with more than a dozen safety violations since 2010, and the company has filed at least four injury claims involving falls from steep roofs resulting in serious injuries and hospitalizations.

The company has 15 business days to appeal the citations. Penalties paid to the department will be placed in the state’s workers compensation supplemental pension fund.