$1.34 Million Penalty Added To Nanuet Contractor Fines After 2nd Death

NANUET, NY — A Nanuet roofing and siding contractor with a significant history of safety violations and penalties now faces an additional $1.34 million in penalties after another fatal fall by a company employee, the second in three years.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration opened another inspection of ALJ Home Improvement Inc. on Feb. 8, when a worker fell from the roof of a three-story residential construction project in Spring Valley.

Since 2019, when a company employee died in a fall at a Kiamesha Lake work site, OSHA has inspected ALJ Home Improvement six times, issuing 21 violations and levying $299,425 in fines. Its infractions include many worker safety violations, cited most recently in 2021. SEE: Rockland Roofing Contractor Exposed Workers To Deadly Falls

OSHA's investigation of the latest death determined that ALJ again failed to provide training or make sure effective fall protection safeguards were used.

In another example of egregious neglect, they didn't provide eye protection for employees using pneumatic nail guns, OSHAA officials said.

"ALJ Home Improvement continues to ignore the law," said OSHA Regional Administrator Richard Mendelson in New York. “Their repeated willful violations are evidence of an indefensible and inexcusable pattern of disregard for the safety of their employees. OSHA will continue to take strong enforcement actions against such employers.”

ALJ's deliberate and recurring violations of standards it knows about led the agency to issue egregious citations for each instance an employee at the Spring Valley site was exposed to the hazards. In total, ALJ Home Improvement was cited for nine willful and three serious violations. View the citations.

The roofing and siding contractor works throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut,

The company has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

By law, residential construction employers generally must protect workers against falls with guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems when they work 6 feet or more above lower levels, as well as provide personal protective equipment to protect against bodily injury.

Falls are the leading cause of death in construction work in the U.S., accounting for 320 deaths out of 1,008 construction fatalities in 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.