Shawn Purvis, the owner of Scarborough, Maine-based roofing company Purvis Home Improvement, has agreed to pay $45,000 in fines for years of safety violations that occurred prior to 2018, the Portland Press Herald reports. Purvis still faces a criminal prosecution for the death of a worker in 2018.
Purvis' company agreed to pay $3,000 to the federal government June 1 and $500 in monthly installments for the next seven years to settle fines stemming from safety violations discovered at job sites in 2015 and 2018. The settlement amount is $17,000 less than the $62,350 in base fines Purvis accrued over the years by refusing to pay OSHA and correct his practices when cited. Purvis had previously refused to pay the OSHA fines because he believed the agency had not been correctly enforcing its own rules and has incorrectly classified the subcontractors Purvis hires as employees.
According to the Press Herald, the settlement does not clear Purvis of all potential OSHA debts. The contractor still faces more than $2 million in proposed OSHA fines. OSHA cited Purvis Home Improvement for 17 counts in June 2019, including egregious, willful, repeat, and serious workplace safety violations 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. In a previous interview published by the Press Herald, Purvis said he should not be held responsible for employees failing to wear protective equipment when he provides the equipment and instructs employees to wear the equipment.
OSHA levied an additional $278,456 in December 2019 in fines against Purvis for a job completed in Springvale, Maine, where inspectors said three employees were working without proper fall protection, scaffolding had been erected too close to energize power lines, and ladders did not extend far enough above the roof line.
