The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has confirmed fall hazards issued to a Georgia company that served as the general contractor on a residential townhouse roofing project.
The commission, in an order published Monday, granted summary judgment to the U.S. Secretary of Labor in a case against Norcross-based Fama Construction Inc. regarding safety instructions issued in March 2019 following a site visit.
Fama admitted that in March 2019 it had ended its training program and stopped safety inspections of its workplaces, arguing that the subcontractors it uses bear those obligations.
Still, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Fama over the fall hazards discovered at the urban housing site.
The commission said Fama must still meet certain safety requirements in its secondary role as controlling employer.
Fama mounted an impossibility defense, in which companies cited must prove that compliance with certain safety requirements would be technically or economically impossible.
Fama said compliance with the cited OSHA regulations would require it to hire an additional $50,000 supervisor annually, which it said would force it to shut down operations.
The commission agreed with OSHA that Fama failed to prove that there would be no possible alternative means of protecting its subcontractors from workplace hazards.
Granting summary judgment to the government, the commission upheld two workplace safety citations and ordered the company to pay $68,344 in punitive damages.
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