OSHA has cited Shawn Purvis, the owner of Saco, Maine-based Purvis Home Improvement for willful, repeat, and serious workplace safety violations at a jobsite in Springvale, Maine. The new penalties levied against the roofing contractor total $278,456, according to an OSHA news release.

OSHA conducted an investigation of the Springvale jobsite in May in response to a compliant filed to the agency. Inspectors found three employees working on a two-story residential roof without proper fall protection. The agency also cited the employer for allowing employees to work on scaffolds near energized power lines and for using ladders with side rails that did not extend at least three feet above upper work surfaces.

“OSHA regulations require that employees working at heights wear fall protection,” said principal deputy assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health Loren Sweatt. “This employer’s ongoing defiance of the law continues to place his workers at risk for disabling and fatal injuries.”

Purvis and his company have been frequently cited by OSHA, receiving seven citations for safety violations in the past seven years. Most recently, OSHA cited Purvis Home Improvement for 17 counts in June, including egregious, willful, repeat, and serious workplace safety violations, totaling $1,792,726 in penalties. The June citation manifested after an employee fell to their death in December 2018 while working on a three-story residential roof in Portland, Maine.

As a result of the workplace fatality, Purvis was indicted on charges of workplace manslaughter for the death of his employee and has been sued by the family of the roofing employee. OSHA has also taken Purvis to court, seeking to collect $54,353.21 in unpaid fines from previous safety violations Purvis incurred in 2015 and 2018. Purvis has refused to pay the OSHA fines because he believes the agency has not been correctly enforcing its own rules and has incorrectly classified the subcontractors Purvis hires as employees.

Purvis has 15 business days from the receipt of the latest citations and proposed penalties to comply, request an informal conference with his OSHA area director, or contest the findings.