OSHA has fined an Alabama contractor $328,500 in proposed penalties for 13 safety violations after inspectors visited three jobsites in August and November 2007.

Gilco Contracting Inc. has been cited for seven repeat violations and penalties totaling $315,000 for failing to follow OSHA's rules regarding protection of employees in trenching and excavating operations at two jobsites in Lakeview and another in Northport, Ala. The company had received citations for similar violations after inspections in 2005 and 2006.

"OSHA will not allow a company to put its employees in extreme jeopardy every day they go to work," said Roberto Sanchez, OSHA's area director in Birmingham. "Finding repeat violations at three different job locations demonstrates to us that Gilco Contracting is indifferent to its employees' safety."

The company also received three serious violations with proposed penalties of $10,800 for not keeping conveyor belt work areas free from fall hazards and for using improper equipment, and three other-than-serious citations with penalties of $2,700 for recordkeeping violations.