OSHA fines contractor $1.3 million for second fatal fall

A roofing and siding contractor with a history of safety violations faces $1.3 million in penalties after the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated a fatal fall — the second in three years involving a company employee.

OSHA opened an investigation of Nanuet, New York-based ALJ Home Improvement Inc. in February 2022 after a worker died from falling off the roof of a three-story residential building under construction. In February 2019, another company employee died from a fall at a different ALI work site.

The agency determined that ALJ failed to provide fall protection training or ensure effective fall protection safeguards were used. It also found the company failed to provide eye protection for employees using pneumatic nail guns, exposing them to the risk of serious eye injuries.

OSHA said the employer's “knowledge of fall and eye protection requirements, and its deliberate and recurring violations of these standards, led OSHA to issue egregious citations for each instance an employee …  was exposed to the hazards.”

In total, ALJ was cited for nine willful and three serious violations stemming from the most recent inspection.

Since 2019, OSHA has inspected ALJ six times, issuing 21 citations and levying $299,425 in fines. The infractions included multiple willful fall protection and eye protection violations.

ALJ, which has work sites in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, has 15 business days from receipt of the latest citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA or contest.