OSHA Cites Masonry Company for Violations in Voorhees

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited a Somerdale construction company this week, hitting it with eight violations, including three repeats, at a work site in Voorhees, and has proposed more than $50,000 in fines, OSHA officials said.

The citations against Becksted Masonry LLC came as a result of an October 2012 inspection, OSHA officials said, where inspectors found five serious safety violations and three repeat violations, including hazardous scaffolding.

Those serious violations—ones where there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and the employer knew, or should have known, about the hazards—included a failure to provide training for employees working on the scaffolding, OSHA officials said.

Becksted had been previously cited for other scaffold hazards—a lack of fall protection, the use of scaffold cross braces to access the scaffold’s walking and working surfaces and missing toe boards—in 2008 and 2010 at the company’s work sites in Voorhees, Gibbsboro and Manalapan, OSHA officials said.

“The company’s failure to correct these hazards leaves workers vulnerable to accidents common to scaffolding, which can cause serious injury and possible death,” said Paula Dixon-Roderick, director of OSHA’s Marlton office, which conducted the inspection. “These hazards can be controlled by compliance with OSHA standards.”

The construction company has 15 days from the citations, which were announced Wednesday, to comply, contest the citations or request an informal conference with local OSHA officials.

To ask questions, obtain compliance assistance, file a complaint, or report workplace hospitalizations, fatalities or situations posing imminent danger to workers, the public can call OSHA’s toll-free hotline at 800-321-OSHA (6742) or the agency’s Marlton Area Office at 856-596-5200.