Snohomish County framer fined $400,000 for 16th safety violation

A Snohomish County contractor is being fined $400,000 for breaking safety regulations, a violation the company has already been cited for 15 other times.

The Washington state Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) was inspecting a Seattle job site where the company, Genesis Framing Construction, was building a two-story house when they observed several safety violations.

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One worker was on the steep roof without any fall protection, and another was working using some “hand-made scaffold.” Inspectors also found crewmembers working near unguarded wall openings more than 15 feet above the ground. They were both being supervised by an onsite foreman.

It is against Washington labor law to have workers more than 26 feet off the ground without proper safety equipment.

Because of these nine violations that inspectors found, the company is being fined $396,847.

Owner Cecilio Solorio has “willful and repeat fall protection violations” while operating multiple different companies, L&I said.

“Business owners like Mr. Solorio, who knowingly and repeatedly put workers at risk, are the reason L&I focuses greater scrutiny on severe and repeat violators. As long as workers need protection from employers who disregard their safety, we’ll be there,” said Craig Blackwood, assistant director for L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH).

The DOSH has a Severe Violator Enforcement Program which provides extra resources in monitoring employers who show indifference to their obligations to keep workers safe by committing willful, repeated, or failure-to-fix violations. More repeat violations could lead to the DOSH in referring the case to state prosecutors for criminal charges.