OSHA finds Shoreline Foundation Inc. exposes workers to drowning, fall and impalement hazards

Employer name: Shoreline Foundation Inc.

Inspection site: 1 East, 11th Street, Riviera Beach, Florida 33404

Date citations issued: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued citations to the employer on July 23, 2015.

Inspection findings: OSHA issued the employer 16 serious, one repeated and one other-than-serious safety violation. The violations include: failing to provide employees with personal protective equipment; exposing workers to drowning hazards; allowing employees to work without fall protection; exposing employees to impalement hazards by allowing them to work near unguarded vertical and horizontal rebar rods; and failing to ensure cranes operating on barges were physically secured. Shoreline Foundation Inc. was issued an additional 15 safety violations, with $83,600 in proposed penalties, in June 2015.

Quote: "This is Shoreline's third inspection within the past two years at this jobsite and we are still finding serious safety and health hazards," said Condell Eastmond, OSHA's area director in Ft. Lauderdale. "Worker safety is not an option, and management must take immediate action to address the workplace hazards that have been identified before an employee is seriously injured or killed."

Proposed penalties: $112,500

The citations can be viewed at: http://www.osha.gov/ooc/citations/ShorelineFoundationInc_1021105.pdf

Shoreline Foundation Inc. specializes in marine, heavy highway and deep foundation construction services. The company contracted with the Port of Palm Beach in 2013 to demolish the existing seawall and build a new one.

Shoreline 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 amputations, loss of an eye, 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 Ft. Lauderdale Area Office at 954-424-0242.