OVERSEAS STEEL FABRICATORS, INC.

According to U.S. Department of Labor enforcement records, OVERSEAS STEEL FABRICATORS, INC. — a industry sector 00 facility located at PARCEL 1 & 2, EST. DONOE, ST. THOMAS, VI 00802 — was the subject of a formal OSHA inspection that resulted in 24 citation(s) and cumulative proposed penalties of $19,620.00. The inspection case was opened on 1997-02-11.

The volume of citations issued during this inspection suggests systematic compliance deficiencies rather than isolated incidents. Facilities with 10 or more citations typically face comprehensive abatement requirements and may be subject to follow-up inspections.

State Context: Within VI, this facility's penalty places it at the 99th percentile among 3,127 inspected facilities. The statewide average penalty is $1,798.47.

Citation Analysis: The inspection produced 24 citations spanning 7 distinct OSHA regulatory standards. The citation breakdown includes: 10 serious — A workplace hazard that could cause death or serious physical harm exists, and the employer knew or should have known about the condition. 5 repeat — A substantially similar violation was found during a previous inspection and the original citation has become a final order.

Enforcement Timeline: Citations were issued beginning June 5, 1996 with the latest abatement deadline set for August 5, 1999. Of the 24 total citations, 9 (38%) have been marked as abated in DOL records, which may indicate ongoing compliance gaps requiring further regulatory attention.

Penalty Assessment: The cumulative penalty of $19,620.00 reflects OSHA's gravity-based penalty calculation methodology, which considers the severity of potential injury, the probability of occurrence, the employer's size, good faith, and violation history. The per-citation average of $817.50 falls within the standard penalty range.

The enforcement record for Overseas Steel Fabricators, Inc. reveals a deeply entrenched pattern of systemic safety failures, characterized by a staggering volume of repeat violations that signal a breakdown in safety management systems. The recurrence of citations under 1926.21(b)(2) and 1926.20(b)(2) is particularly damning, indicating that the employer consistently failed to instruct employees in hazard recognition and neglected to perform required site inspections. In practical terms, workers were likely operating in an environment where known risks were neither identified nor mitigated, and safety training was fundamentally non-existent or ignored. The gravity of these repeat violations, coupled with significant penalties totaling nearly $20,000 in 1997 dollars, reflects an enforcement posture typically reserved for employers who demonstrate a recalcitrant attitude toward compliance. The citation cluster involving fall protection (1926.105), scaffolding (1926.451), and ladder safety (1926.1053) highlights a critical failure to address the "Fatal Four" hazards inherent in steel fabrication and construction. Furthermore, the multiple violations regarding compressed gas cylinder handling (1926.350) suggest a pervasive disregard for basic fire and explosion prevention. This is not a profile of isolated technical lapses; rather, it is an indictment of a facility where hazardous conditions were allowed to persist despite prior OSHA interventions. The legal significance of the repeated designations suggests that the employer had been previously warned of these exact hazards, yet failed to implement sustainable corrective actions, thereby exposing employees to avoidable, high-gravity risks of falls and catastrophic industrial accidents.