by Jerry Burke
In a statement released last week, OSHA said that New Creation Stucco Inc., on Commonwealth Street, did not provide workers with proper protection from falls as they did stucco work that began last December. The company was cited for a total of six "willful violations," meaning that OSHA believes they were committed with an intentional disregard or plain indifference to the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
OSHA inspectors said they found at both sites an insufficient number of walking planks on scaffolds, and workers using ladders that did not safely reach the areas they were working on. The other two alleged violations include a lack of guardrails and a lack of hard hats. The labor organization has proposed fines totaling $156,000.
According to Harvey Shapiro, OSHA's Long Island director, this isn't the first time New Creation has been under investigation. "In April of 2002, we found during inspections at work sites in Bayside and Levittown that the company was not providing helmets or fall protection and [had] inadequate cross-bracing on scaffolds," said Shapiro. Those violations carry a proposed penalty of $12,000, while a separate "serious violation," the failure to lay platforms on top of each other when the direction of the platform changes, carries a possible $2,000 fine.
"Falls are among the most common causes of work-related injuries and fatalities," Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao said in a press statement. "OSHA's standards are in place to protect workers, but they must be strictly followed to avoid accidents."
According to OSHA, the company has 15 business days from its receipt of the citations, which were sent out on July 3, to either comply contest them before a review commission or contact Shapiro and meet in conference. The company could not be reached for comment on the allegations.
