The U.S. Department of Labor has cited roofing contractor TarHeel Corp. for a fatal fall at an East Naples job site last year.

The department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has accused the St. Petersburg-based contractor of exposing employees to safety hazards after one of its workers died from a fall in the Forest Glen Golf & Country Club community.  

The fall happened Aug. 31, 2018. The address for the job site was listed as 3950 Loblolly Bay Drive.

More details about the incident weren’t available from OSHA.

In a news release, the Department of Labor said it cited TarHeel for failing to provide employees with fall protection systems and to train employees on the proper procedures to put up and use the systems, as well as for failing to properly train employees operating powered industrial trucks.

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The contractor faces $32,013 in penalties. 

“This incident may have been prevented had the company implemented and followed OSHA’s fall protection standards,” OSHA’s Fort Lauderdale area director, Condell Eastmond, said in a statement.

The company has 15 business days from receiving the citations and proposed penalties to either comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

A spokeswoman for TarHeel said the company would contest all of the allegations of violations.

The company’s attorney, Philip Siegel, a partner in Atlanta-based Hendrick, Phillips, Salzman & Siegel, said the company just received the notice of the citation and it still was investigating the allegations.

“It took time to get to us,” Siegel said. 

The company provides training for all employees on safety and all hazards, including falls and operation of powered industrial trucks, he said.

Siegel’s firm serves as general counsel to the National Roofing Contractors Association.

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According to its website, TarHeel, a family business founded in 1981, has provided roofing and waterproofing services for more than 37 years.

The company has done work throughout the United States and the Caribbean and serves national clients as well as individual owners.

Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, businesses are responsible for providing safe and healthy workplaces for their employees. OSHA’s role is to set and enforce standards, as well as provide training, education and other assistance to help employers and workers.

According to OSHA records, TarHeel also was cited Jan. 24, accused of failing to provide proper fall protection, and reached an informal settlement in that case last month. The adjusted penalty was a little over $7,160.

Records show the earlier citation followed an OSHA inspection of another Naples-area job site Aug. 8, 2018, triggered by a complaint. That job site was listed as 4500 Botanical Place Circle, a condo building off Bayshore Drive in East Naples.

With the settlement, there was no admissions of wrongdoing, Siegel said.

“The case was settled and it was economically based,” he said. “It didn’t make sense to fight it, given the amount of the penalty.”