Cal/OSHA cited an Escondido-based roofing contractor that does jobs throughout Southern California for repeat violations of fall protection safety orders and proposed $134,454 in penalties, the state workplace safety agency announced Thursday.
A representative of California Premier Roofscapes said Thursday afternoon that the company had no immediate comment.
According to Cal/OSHA, California Premier Roofscapes was investigated and cited on six occasions over the past four years for putting its workers at risk of fatal falls.
Cal/OSHA opened the most recent inspection last August after receiving a report alleging that workers weren’t wearing proper fall protection while installing tiles on the roof of a three-story home in Chula Vista. Inspectors found that California Premier Roofscapes failed to ensure their workers were wearing safety harnesses and other personal fall protection. Employees also were not properly trained on fall protection and roof work hazards, Cal/OSHA officials said.
“California Premier Roofscapes has repeatedly put its workers at risk of potentially deadly falls from heights, disregarding basic safety requirements to protect its employees,” Cal/OSHA Chief Juliann Sum alleged.
The first inspection with California Premier Roofscapes came in October 2014 after Cal/OSHA received a complaint that employees were working on an Irvine roof with no fall protection.
Cal/OSHA inspected a California Premier Roofscapes’ residential construction site in Azuza the following day after receiving a complaint involving an allegedly unsafe portable ladder. The following month, Cal/OSHA investigated an accident involving a worker who suffered serious head and knee injuries after falling 15 feet from a ladder attached to scaffolding at a Carlsbad residential construction site.
In June 2015, Cal/OSHA opened an inspection and cited California Premier Roofscapes for a repeat serious violation after workers with no fall protection were reported on the roof of an Irvine construction site. In March of the following year, Cal/OSHA inspected a report that California Premier Roofscapes’ workers wore harnesses but were not properly tied off to prevent falls from the roof of a Tustin construction site.