OSHA fines Schaumburg contractor $123K

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Monday that it fined a Schaumburg-based contractor $122,960 for four instances of failing to protector workers from cave-ins.

OSHA, an arm of the U.S. Department of Labor, said A. Lamp Concrete Contractors Inc. was fined for negligence pertaining to underground work done at a work site in Morton Grove.

A call placed to A. Lamp’s offices in Schaumburg was not returned.

According to a news release, the first citation comes with a $69,300 fine. It claims employees were doing trench work without the proper protections after an Oct. 4 inspection. Officials call this a willful citation, meaning an employer intentionally disregarded the law or showed indifference to employee safety and health.

That same inspection showed excavation workers didn’t have proper access and egress, and merited at $29,700 fine, the release said.

A. Lamp was also fined $20,000 for allegedly not having adequate precautions on Sept. 7 while workers were in trenches greater than 9 feet, OSHA said. The company was fined another $3,960 for not giving employees hard hats, OSHA said.

OSHA officials said they’ve inspected A. Lamp 12 times since 1999, producing 13 citations.