Responding to complaints from the public that workers roofing on top of homes had no protection from falls, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) inspected Allways Roofing at three job sites in Snohomish and one in Lake Stevens between Dec. 2020 and March 2021.

Inspectors found 12 willful serious violations including employees engaged in roofing work on a steep pitch roof with no fall protection installed, ladders not set up or used correctly, and workers not wearing eye protection while using pneumatic nail guns. All but one of the 12 violations were repeats of previous safety issues at the company's job sites.

Nine general violations were found including the company not holding safety meetings or documenting safety inspections. The total fines are $1,242,807.

A number of factors figure into the dollar amount of fines: the number of workers employed by the company, the seriousness of the violations, and whether the company has a history of safety violations are a few. In the case of Allways Roofing, repeat violations, which have an increasing multiplier as the number of repeats increases, is the biggest reason why the fine is so large.

History of safety violations

L&I has cited Allways Roofing for more than a dozen safety violations since 2010. In January 2020, Allways Roofing was fined nearly $375,000 for six willful, six serious, and two repeat-general violations for safety hazards found at three Woodinville and Arlington work sites. The company has been, and will remain in the Severe Violator Program and is subject to greater scrutiny by the state.

Additionally, Allways Roofing has had at least four injury claims involving falls from steep roofs resulting in serious injuries and hospitalizations.

"This isn't a case of the company not knowing what the rules are. They've blatantly chosen to ignore them, putting their workers at serious risk," said Craig Blackwood, acting assistant director of L&I's Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

"We hope these substantial fines will be the wake-up call that finally motivates Allways Roofing to keep their people safe, before one of their workers is killed," said Blackwood.

Falls are the most common cause of death in construction. In 2020, four workers in Washington died after falls from a roof, a ladder and while performing other construction work.

Allways Roofing has 15 business days, which is June 21, to appeal the citations. Money from fines is placed in the workers compensation supplemental pension fund, helping injured workers and families of those who have died on the job.