OSHA Fines Chicago-Area Framing Contractor $317K for Exposing Workers to Deadly Fall Hazards
Originally Published by: OSHA — July 29, 2024
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Two federal workplace safety investigations have found a Chicago-area framing contractor - already facing debt collection for more than $100,000 in fines for violations identified in 2022 - continuing to expose employees to deadly fall hazards and defying the U.S. Department of Labor's requests for documents and information related to the contractor’s business and workers safety and health.
OSHA inspectors observed employees working at heights up to 30 feet without fall protection on Jan. 29, 2024, at a residential construction site on North 80th Street in River Grove, inspectors with the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found employees of KW Framing Inc. without required protective equipment while they erected exterior walls on structures two to three stories high. During this visit, inspectors reminded the employer of their responsibility for protecting workers from fall hazards.
When inspectors returned to the site on Feb. 9 and Feb. 12, 2024, they again found workers exposed to similar fall hazards as they set joists and trusses. Wojciech Knapczyk, a management official at the company, dismissed the concerns of OSHA inspectors.
On May 7, 2024, OSHA visited another KW Framing worksite in the same residential development and found, once again, the company allowing employees to sheath a more than 30-foot high roof without required fall protection.
As a result of the January and May inspections, OSHA cited KW Framing for one repeat violation for failure to provide eye protection and two willful citations for its lack of fall protection. In addition, the agency cited the company for four serious and two other-than-serious violations for not having guardrails or stair rails, misusing ladders, failing to ensure employers wore head protection and not maintaining records or certification that employees received fall protection training.
OSHA has proposed $317,644 in penalties.
"By refusing to comply with federal safety regulations and dismissing the concerns of OSHA inspectors, KW Framing is putting the lives of its employees in jeopardy," said OSHA's Chicago North Area Director Sukhvir Kaur in Arlington Heights, Illinois. "Falls from elevation are the leading cause of work-related deaths in the construction industry, and yet this company is more concerned about profit than its workers' well-being."
To date, the company has not responded to OSHA's 2022 citations or made an effort to pay $117,843 in penalties assessed, which has led the department to seek debt collection.
"If KW Framing believes ignoring OSHA will somehow relieve them of their legal responsibility for providing a safe work environment, they will find that the Department of Labor intends to use all possible means to hold the company and its management accountable," Kaur added.
In 2022, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1,056 construction workers died on the job, with 423 of those fatalities related to falls from elevation, slips or trips.
OSHA's stop falls website offers safety information and video presentations in English and Spanish to teach workers about fall hazards and proper safety procedures.