OSHA cites marine construction company for exposing workers to three-story high fall hazards, other safety violations

Employer name: Marine Builders, Inc.

Inspection site: 5821 Utica Pike, Jeffersonville, Indiana

Citations issued: March 1, 2016

Investigation findings: The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s cited Marine Builders Inc. for one repeat, eight serious and three other-than-serious safety violations.

Investigators from the agency’s Indianapolis area office responded to complaints alleging unsafe working conditions at the full-service marine construction company.

The agency cited the company for:

• Exposing workers to fall hazards of about 33 feet from tug decks that lacked adequate guardrails.
• Failing to maintain rigging equipment.
• Lack of crane tests and inspections.
• Electrical safety violations including use of damaged equipment.
• Incomplete injury and illness logs.

Quote: “Shipyards pose many potential safety hazards and, as such, employers must be vigilant to specific hazards that come with working on the water including falls, damp and slippery conditions and the use of cranes,” said Vanessa Martin, OSHA’s area director in Indianapolis. “Complying with OSHA’s common sense safety standards protects workers from injury on the job.”

Proposed Penalties: $43,995

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 Indianapolis Area Office at 317-226-7299.