The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Court has ordered coercive sanctions against Travis Slaughter and his two Florida roofing companies, Great White Construction and Florida Roofing Experts, after finding the companies in contempt of court for failing to pay $2,202,049 in OSHA penalties.
Slaughter and his companies have been repeat OSHA safety and health violation offenders for nearly seven years. OSHA has investigated Florida Roofing Experts and Great White Construction 19 times since 2013, resulting in 42 citations related to improper fall protection, ladder use, and eye protection. Most recently, Jacksonville, Fla.-based Florida Roofing Experts was fined $1,007,717 in January 2020 for failing to protect workers from falls at two separate worksites in Fleming Island, Fla., and Middleburg, Fla. Florida Roofing Experts was fined the maximum allowable penalty of $132,598 for violations relating to exposing employees to fall hazards in April 2019 and was fined $129,336 in November 2018 for another fall hazard-related violation. Great White Construction was cited at three separate job sites between January 2017 and April 2017, with fines totaling $392,197.
In January, the appeals court held Slaughter and his two companies in civil contempt and ordered the roofing companies to pay the outstanding penalties of $2,202,049 plus interest and fees. Additionally, the court ordered Slaughter to certify his companies had corrected the violations found in previous investigations of worksites. The Department of Labor had previously filed a petition for summary enforcement against Florida Roofing Experts, Great White Construction, and Slaughter to enforce 12 final orders of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, stemming from 25 OSHA inspections at worksites in Florida that disclosed multiple willful and repeat violations of fall protection. The court's decision warned Slaughter that the failure to repay outstanding penalties owed could result in his incarceration.
“This enforcement action demonstrates that OSHA will use every resource available to ensure that standards are followed and that companies like Great White and Florida Roofing Experts are held accountable when they ignore multiple court orders, do not correct cited violations, and fail to pay penalties,” OSHA’s regional administrator Kurt Petermeyer said in a news release.
