OSHA cites Merit Construction Services after worker injured in fall at Milwaukee parking structure

Employer name: Merit Construction Services Inc., Farmington, Minnesota.

Citations received: Dec. 2, 2015

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's Milwaukee Area Office cited the Minnesota-based concrete company for one willful, and three serious safety violations.

OSHA initiated an inspection after Merit Construction reported that a worker fell about 9 feet through a hole onto a concrete floor on July 2, 2015. The company was doing repair work at a parking structure at 340 West Wells Street in Milwaukee. Inspectors found the company exposed workers to falls and other injuries because they failed to provide fall protection, and label and secure hole covers to prevent falls.

Quote: "This traumatic injury was easily preventable by using fall protection devices and carefully marking hazards in an active construction site," said Chris Zortman, OSHA's area director in Milwaukee. "Each year hundreds of workers are injured on the job because employers fail to follow basic safety precautions."

Proposed Penalties: $44,800

View Citations here:

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report amputations, eye loss, 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 Milwaukee Area Office at 414-297-3315.