San Antonio-based Apex Enterprises Cited for Workplace Hazards

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Apex Enterprises Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, with 11 serious violations for exposing workers to fall, electrical and struck-by hazards at the company’s worksite in Pflugerville, Texas. Proposed penalties total $40,200.

OSHA began its inspection Feb. 18 at the company’s worksite on Kelly Lane where workers were finishing a roof with peak heights of up to 40 feet without wearing personal fall protection devices. The inspection was conducted as part of a regional emphasis program on construction hazards.

The violations include failing to ensure employees were wearing personal fall protection equipment such as a full body harness with lanyard and deceleration device, to provide fall protection training for employees working on roof edges, to ensure the use of safety glasses and hard hats, to ensure electrical cords were free from exposed copper and to ensure ladders extended 3 feet above the landing surface.

OSHA standards require that an effective form of fall protection, such as guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems, be in use when workers perform construction activities 6 feet or more above the next lower level.

Apex Enterprises has 15 business days from receipt of citations to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director in Austin, or contest the citations and penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

Source: OSHA