The Occupational Safety and Health Administration named fall hazards as the most cited violation of 2023, making it the 13th consecutive year. It is one of the most cited violations in roofing, and in 2022, falls, slips and trips resulted in 100 fatal workplace incidents.

Due to incidents like these, OSHA is not lenient when it comes to issuing citations and penalties to roofing contractors. As 2023 wraps up, RC is examining OSHA violations from the past year to see which contractors were hit with the largest penalties.

For the list, both the dollar amount as well as fatal incidents are taken into account, meaning those higher on the list may not have huge fines but, unfortunately, lost a worker. 

10. Ridge Runner Construction LLC – New Hampshire

According to a February news release from OSHA, Ridge Runner Construction LLC in Derry, N.H., exposed employees at job sites in Salem and Merrimack to falls of up to 20 feet as they installed shingles or performed roofing work, and worked on ladders that did not extend at least 3 feet above the roofs' edges for required stability. The company received a combined $234,741 in proposed penalties, which it is contesting as of last March.

9. Avila’s Roofing LLC – Pennsylvania

OSHA inspectors observed employees of Avila’s Roofing LLC working at heights of up to 27 feet in February 2023 without fall protection. They also learned the company had not provided employees with effective training on fall hazards and allowed them to work without eye and face protection when potential risks of eye or face injury existed. The violations carried $328,143 in proposed penalties. 

8. Allways Roofing – Washington

Seattle-area roofing company Allways Roofing received a $430,000 fine from the Washington Department of Labor and Industries after authorities inspected a job site last April based on a tip that a roofing crew working on a two-story house in Mount Vernon had neither secure fall protection equipment nor eye protection in use. According to state documents, the contractor has accumulated more than $3.7 million in fines, unpaid taxes and workers compensation premiums, and had only paid $250,000 as of last November.

7. JHM Roofing – Ohio

According to OSHA, inspectors observed workers with JHM Roofing of Millersburg, Ohio, exposing workers to fall hazards of up to 19 feet at four residential roofing job sites in Canton, Uniontown and Westlake, despite having fall protection equipment on site. Following inspections held in March, April and June, OSHA proposed $548,801 in penalties after identifying eight willful and two repeat violations. JHM Roofing contested the citations on Sept. 29.

6. Extreme Roofing and Siding LLC – New Jersey

In July, OSHA inspected a worksite in Upper Saddle River, N.J., where Extreme Roofing and Siding was working on a roof. Inspectors observed four workers on a roof exposed to a 30-foot fall hazard without fall protection, as well as additional violations at the worksite on other days that week. At the time, Guelsin Lima, dba Extreme Roofing and Siding, was employed as a roofing subcontractor on a Toll Brothers Inc. residential construction project. The agency issued Lima 12 citations and proposed $584,333 in penalties for fall protection, ladder use and head and eye protection violations.

5. ALJ Home Improvement Inc. – New York

Roofing contractor ALJ Home Improvement Inc., which has a history of two employees suffering fatal falls, was cited again for exposing workers to fall hazards without protection in August 2022. Inspectors observed three ALJ Home Improvement employees on a roof 18 feet above ground without required fall protection. OSHA proposed a $687,536 penalty in February 2023, which ALJ Home Improvement contested. Last November, the Department of Labor obtained a consent judgment to order the roofing company to provide employees with fall equipment.

4.  Porter Roofing Contractors Inc. – Tennessee

Tennessee-based roofing contractor Porter Roofing Contractors Inc. received a fine from OSHA last April following the death of a worker due to a fatal fall. According to OSHA, the roofing company was working at Peter Prince Field Airport in Florida in October 2022 when a 59-year-old worker stepped onto a skylight and its “sudden collapse” resulted in a 25-foot drop to the concrete floor. The injured worker died four days later. Porter Roofing received a $53,797 penalty, and in an informal settlement, one of its serious citations was deleted.

3. Troyer Roofing & Coatings – Missouri

In March 2023, an 18-year-old employee of Troyer Roofing & Coatings was applying sealant to a commercial building’s roof when he fell more than 22 feet and suffered injuries that left him in a coma for five days until he succumbed to his injuries and died. Following this, the company allowed a foreman and another worker to continue working without fall protection, according to OSHA. The agency cited Troyer Roofing & Coatings for one willful violation, three serious violations and one other-than-serious violation and proposed penalties of $205,369.

2. Elite Roofing Services – New York

Elite Roofing Services was working at a Glen Cove jobsite last April when, while installing metal decking on a flat industrial roof, a worker fell through an opening to a concrete floor nearly 20 feet below. The worker subsequently died. OSHA said Elite Roofing Services Inc. failed to train each employee on recognizing and mitigating fall hazards before conducting the steel erection work, and proposed penalties totaling $522,527. The company contested the penalties as of Nov. 3, 2023.

1. Purvis Home Improvement Co. – Maine

In a story that has been ongoing since 2018, a Maine roofing contractor faces $1.6 million in penalties after a federal judge affirmed citations and violations related to the death of a worker. Last June, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission Administrative Law Judge Carol A. Baumerich found Shawn Purvis, owner of Purvis Home Improvement, personally liable for $1,572,340 in OSHA penalties.

In December 2018, Alan Loignon, 30, was reportedly working as a subcontracted roofer at a house in Portland. He wasn’t using fall protection and, while climbing down a ladder onto scaffolding, fell 21 feet to his death.