Oregon OSHA has fined Beaverton-based Luka’s General Construction LLC $317,587 after inspectors found workers on the roof of a two-story house in Molalla wearing full-body harnesses that weren’t tied off to anything, the company’s sixth fall protection citation in less than two years. The workers faced a fall of up to 19 feet.
The agency announced the citations Oct. 15. The contractor has corrected the fall and ladder hazards and filed an appeal, which Oregon employers can do within 30 calendar days of receiving a citation.
The three fall protection violations
Fall protection drew the biggest number: a fifth-repeat violation carrying $167,294. Oregon requires fall protection wherever a worker could fall 6 feet or more to a lower level. A harness without an anchor doesn’t meet that rule, and it’s a failure inspectors see often on residential roofs because it looks compliant from the street.
The ladder citation was also a fifth repeat, at $138,146. The ladder didn’t extend at least 3 feet above the roof edge, the margin workers need to step on and off safely.
The third item cost $12,147, a first-repeat violation for having no records showing employees were trained to recognize fall hazards and to follow procedures to reduce them. The company is under an order to correct it.
“Any employer who directs employees to work at heights must address potential fall hazards,” Oregon OSHA administrator Renée Stapleton said. Repeated failures, she said, only raise the odds a worker is seriously hurt or killed.
How Oregon OSHA repeat penalties stack up
The math explains the size of the fine. Under the state’s 2026 penalty schedule, the top serious-rated violation is $17,004 and the maximum for a repeat violation is $170,046. The fall protection penalty landed $2,752 under that ceiling. The training citation sits exactly at the $12,147 repeat minimum.
In other words, the state has almost no room left on this company’s fall violations short of a fatality or a willful finding, where the ceiling for a repeat or willful violation tied to a death rises to $272,058. A seventh citation would cost about what the sixth did.
A small residential contractor can absorb a warning or a $5,000 serious citation as a cost of doing business. A $317,587 bill is a different conversation, and it’s the outcome repeat-multiplier schemes are built to produce. Whether it sticks depends on the appeal.
Residential fall safety and what GCs should take from it
Oregon is a state-plan state, so its rules and penalties run above the federal floor. California is moving the same direction. Its AB 2321 makes a willful violation that injures a worker a crime starting Jan. 1.
For builders and GCs hiring roofing and framing subs, the practical step is cheap. Ask for the sub’s state OSHA inspection history before the contract, and check anchors on day one, not just harnesses. Oregon’s own consultation program offers free, no-citation help at 800-922-2689.
Falls remain one of the leading causes of death in construction. Six citations in under two years is the number that should end up in somebody’s prequalification file.