OSHA cites Global Construction & Engineering Inc. for exposing workers to safety hazards at Center Point, Alabama work site

Employer name: Global Construction & Engineering Inc.

Inspection site: At the time of the inspection, workers were installing sewer lines at 3025 Wood Drive Center Point, Alabama 35215.

Date inspection initiated: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated the Oct. 8, 2014 inspection as part of the agency's National Emphasis Program on Trenching and Excavation.

Inspection findings: OSHA issued the employer one willful citation for allowing employees to work in an excavation without cave-in protection. OSHA requires that all trenches and excavation sites 5-feet or deeper be protected against sidewall collapses. Protection may be provided through shoring of trench walls, sloping of the soil at a shallow angle or by using a protective trench box. One repeated citation was issued for not providing workers safe entrance and exit from the trench. Additionally, five serious citations were issued for allowing workers to perform trenching operations without head protection; not providing reflective vests for employees working near vehicular traffic; and not removing workers from a trench when cave-in hazards were discovered.

Quote: "Trenching and excavation operations are widely known for being very dangerous, yet Global Construction made no attempts to protect its workers," said Ramona Morris, OSHA's area director in Birmingham. "When an employer willfully ignores OSHA standards it puts workers at risk of being injured or killed and OSHA will not tolerate this."

Proposed penalties: $48,840

The citations can be viewed at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/osha/OSHA20150565fs.pdf

Global Construction has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to comply, request a conference with OSHA's area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency's Birmingham Area Office at 205-731-1534.