As a contractor with a construction company or as part of the HR department, something that you need to pay attention to is the safety requirements on a job site. If you neglect to do so, there could be serious repercussions. These could range from serious injury to employees to OSHA involvement and heavy fines. Today’s article will focus on one such incident where contractors ignored safety requirements and ended up with both of those consequences, and what could have been done to prevent this.

The US Department of Labor released a report in July 2022 regarding an incident that happened in Denver at the end of 2021. A worker on a construction site fell from a not-yet put-together scaffold, resulting in serious injuries after the 65-ft fall. Another worker on the same site narrowly avoided being injured on that same piece of scaffolding, which was set on top of a lifting device, against manufacturer regulations. These incidents both occurred because contractors running the job ignored the safety regulations to get the work done.

The work being done was the construction of a concrete elevator and stairway core for a residential building. OSHA discovered during the course of their investigation that three particular contractors, including the general contractor, allowed multiple safety regulations to be ignored. The incident occurred when the workers were allowed to get on a climbing scaffold as it was being lifted by a crane. Yes, you read that correctly. One worker fell 65-ft when the scaffolding shifted, sustaining back, leg, and head injuries. The other worker involved was caught by his fall arrest gear and only got some minor bruising. This was part of the statement made by the OSHA area director regarding this incident: "To use equipment to hoist workers to elevations, an employer must demonstrate that conventional means of reaching the work area are impossible or more hazardous. This employer's failure to follow that requirement caused a worker to suffer life-changing injuries and another to be forever reminded of this tragedy."

As a result of OSHA’s investigation, this company and these three contractors, in particular, are being cited with the following: a willful citation for allowing the improper use of equipment on a crane for elevation for employees ($101,519), a serious citation for allowing a subcontracted employer to use said equipment to do that lifting ($14,502), and another serious citation for unsafe operation of a crane ($5,801).

As a rule of thumb, contractors need to be held accountable for following the 3 P’s: protecting their People, Property, and Profits.