SUAMICO, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A Suamico employer is facing $180,000 worth of fines for allegedly failing to project employees and subcontractors from deadly fall hazards, OSHA says.
After an Overhead Solutions LLC manager attended an on-site training discussion on fall hazards on May 25, 2023, federal workplace safety inspectors observed the company’s employees working about 30 feet above ground on a Menasha apartment complex roof without adequate fall protection.
Thirteen days later, an inspector observed a project manager employed by Overhead Solutions LLC hand out energy drinks to subcontractors on a 10-foot-high roof in Appleton, a kindness undermined by the fact that workers lacked fall protection and the manager did not correct the hazard and protect them from the construction industry’s leading cause of death.
In both situations, OSHA opened inspections.
At the Menasha site, inspectors found employees wearing fall protection harnesses and anchors installed on the building’s roof with ropes attached to the anchors, but readily accessible lifelines were not attached as required. Inspectors also found employees exposed to deadly fall hazards as they unloading a pallet raised to the roof by a mechanical lift.
In Appleton, OSHA inspectors found a lack of fall protection, learned the company had no documented accident prevention plan and noted the site’s project manager did not correct fall protection hazards in plain view.
The company received citations for four repeat violations and one serious violation of federal fall protection standards.
Overhead Solutions LLC has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 1,015 construction workers died on the job in 2021, 379 of them related to falls from elevation. Exposure to fall hazards makes residential construction work among the most dangerous jobs.
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