Contractor fined $400K for repeat fall protection violations

SNOHOMISH, Wash. (AP) — The owner of a Washington state framing company is facing nearly $400,000 in fines for allegedly allowing crew members to work high above the ground without fall protection, according to the state Department of Labor and Industries.

Genesis Framing Construction owner Cecilio Solorio faces the fines for nine violations, The Daily Herald reported. Solorio told the newspaper he will appeal.

Solorio has been cited and fined for the same violation 15 other times in the past, according to the Labor and Industries Department.

When the agency reviewed Snohomish-based Genesis Framing’s inspection history, it found Solorio had previous willful and repeat fall protection violations for two other businesses he operates: Chilos Builders and Solorio’s Framing.

Thirty workers employed by those businesses were hurt from 2016 to 2020, the agency reported in 2020.

Inspectors who visited a worksite at a Seattle home in August found a worker using a handmade scaffold and another employee walking on a steep roof without fall protection while a foreman watched, among other problems, the agency said.

“Business owners like Mr. Solorio, who knowingly and repeatedly put workers at risk, are the reason Labor & Industries focuses greater scrutiny on severe and repeat violators,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for the agency’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

In the most severe cases, repeat violators can be referred to the state prosecuting attorney for criminal charges.