Roofing company faces $61,000 in OSHA fines for Danvers violations

By Sean Teehan, Town Correspondent

A roofing company will meet with officials from the US Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration tomorrow to dispute almost $61,000 in fines OSHA imposed for 21 citations at a Danvers work site.

Officials from A.C Castle Roofing Corporation will meet with OSHA after the administration issued the citations two weeks ago, said Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman.

The company is disputing the citations because they used a subcontractor, who ran the work site operations, on the Collins Street job, said A.C. Castle owner, Brian LeBlanc.

"These citations address basic construction safety hazards that should not have existed in the first place," Jeffrey A. Erskine OSHA's area director for Essex and Middlesex counties, said in a statement. "They should be of vital concern to all employers whose workers labor at heights and near power lines."

An inspection conducted on the Collins Street job site Sept. 24 turned up electric shock hazards from employees working within three feet of an energized power line and several other violations, the statement said. The inspection results also allege employees worked on a ladder jack scaffold, which was 19 feet off the ground, without fall protection, according to a statement from OSHA.

OSHA issued three citations totaling $15,200 for repeat violations for lack of head protection, and fall hazards on the rooftop,and ladder, the statement said. A.C. Castle previously received citations for similar violations during a December, 2009 inspection of a Hamilton work site, according to the statement.

A.C. Castle also received a total of $45,600 for 18 "serious" citations, the statement said.

The citations remain "in dispute," LeBlanc said.