Employers throughout the state of Pennsylvania are expected to take the necessary precautions to keep their workers as safe as possible. To ensure that employers throughout the nation do what they can to limit work related injuries, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducts investigations of workplaces. When it determines that violations have been committed, fines may be levied against the employer.

This appears to have happened recently to an employer located in southwestern Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh area business provides painting services and was subcontracted by PennDOT to paint bridges in the state a couple of years ago. After investigating those projects, OSHA uncovered violations, spread out between several different worksites.

A total of 38 violations were uncovered. Some of them were due to workers being exposed to amounts of lead deemed to be at dangerous levels. It was determined that the painting company needed to pay closer attention to the levels workers were exposed to and take steps to make sure the levels were not too high. As a result of the violations, the business is facing proposed fines of $429,044.

This is not the first time the business has been cited for violations by OSHA. In fact, just two years ago it was fined $130,000 for 11 of the same offenses. At the time of the recent citations the reduced settled amount the business and OSHA reached had not yet been completely paid. Those violations include the failure to:

• Post warning signs in areas where workers were exposed to lead
• Make sure employees were taking showers at the end of their shifts
• Perform medical exams on workers who had been exposed to the toxic metal

Whether the fines in this case will be reduced as they were the last time OSHA cited the business remains to be seen. Most would likely agree that regardless of how that turns out, the most important this is to make sure workers are not being harmed.

Source: Lehigh Valley Live, "PennDOT subcontractor fined over worker safety violations in Slatington, elsewhere," Associated Press, Jan. 30, 2013