Region 6 News Release: 11-1406-DAL
Sept. 30, 2011
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 Houston, Texas–based construction
company for electrical, fall and other hazards at Little Rock, Ark., work site

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Houston, Texas–based Atlas Texas Construction and Trading Inc. for 11 serious safety violations carrying proposed penalties of $51,000.

OSHA's inspection, initiated under a national emphasis program on construction, found that about 20 workers were exposed to electrical and fall hazards while constructing the Lisa Academy School on Corporate Hill Drive in Little Rock.

"This company disregarded the safety of its workers by exposing them to multiple hazards," said Carlos Reynolds, director of OSHA's Little Rock Area Office, which conducted the inspection. "OSHA's standards must be followed to prevent injuries and fatalities."

The violations involve failing to train workers on the hazards of electrical equipment, ensure employees were protected from protruding rebar, fully plank scaffolds, provide a guardrail system or fall protection to prevent falls, and ensure that working levels of scaffolding had safe means of access and egress. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

Detailed information about fall hazards and safeguards is available on OSHA's website at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/fallprotection/construction.html. Information on scaffold hazards and safe work practices, including an interactive e-Tool, is available online at http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/scaffolding/index.html.

Atlas Texas Construction and Trading, which employs about 4,000 construction workers nationwide, 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, call OSHA's toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or call the agency's Little Rock 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, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.