Region 6 News Release: 13-439-DAL
March 20, 2013
Contact: Elizabeth Todd Juan Rodriguez
Phone: : 972-850-4710 972-850-4709
Email: todd.elizabeth@dol.gov rodriguez.juan@dol.gov

US Labor Department's OSHA cites Builders Stone and Supply for exposing
workers to multiple serious violations at Fayetteville, Ark., work site

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Builders Stone and Supply, doing business as J & S Plastering, with 11 serious and one repeat safety violation for exposing workers to scaffolding and other safety hazards at a company work site in Fayetteville. Proposed penalties total $69,300.

"The presence of multiple safety hazards at the work site exposed workers to serious injuries," said Carlos Reynolds, area director of OSHA's Little Rock Area Office. "OSHA's standards must be followed to prevent accidents, illnesses and injuries."

OSHA's Little Rock Area Office began investigating the work site on South Beechwood Avenue on January 29, 2012, as part of the agency's regional emphasis program on construction, which is designed to prevent fatalities and injuries in the construction industry. Investigators determined that workers were applying stucco, at heights up to 26 feet, to the exterior surfaces of a newly constructed housing complex building, without adequate scaffolding protection.

The serious violations include failing to ensure scaffolds are fully planked, maintain and repair faulty decking, provide guardrails, replace cross bracings on scaffolds and provide hazard recognition training. A serious violation occurs when there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

The repeat violation is for failing to ensure a competent person inspected faulty scaffolding before it was in use by workers. A repeat violation exists when an employer previously has been cited for the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any other facility in federal enforcement states within the last five years. A similar violation was cited in December 2010.

Builders Stone and Supply, which employs about 30 masonry contractors at its Springdale location, has headquarters in Ozark, Mo. It has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA's area director in Little Rock or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public should call OSHA's toll-free at 800-321-OSHA (6742), or the agency's Little Rock Area Office at 501-224-1841.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, employers are responsible for providing safe and healthful workplaces for their employees. OSHA's role is to ensure these conditions for America's working men and women by setting and enforcing standards, and providing training, education and assistance. For more information, visit http://www.osha.gov.

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille or CD from the COAST office upon request by calling 292-693-7828 or TTY 292-693-7755.