Installing and repairing roof systems is difficult work that requires skill and craftsmanship to protect a building from the elements.

A construction worker fell from the roof of the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium yesterday and plunged approximately 50 feet to his death, according to news sources.

Guillermo Perez and Elma Maldonado, president and vice president of GP Roofing & Construction, LLC, in Palm Coast, Florida, were arrested last month for failing to comply with a March 30 civil contempt order stemming from nine OSHA inspections of GP worksites.

During the demolition of a building, a complaint was lodged with UK Health and Safety Executive inspectors, who visited the site and found a worker stripping slates from a fragile roof without any safety measures in place to prevent a fall, or mitigate any potential life-threatening effects as a result of such a fall.

In an effort to help roofing contractors provide more on-the-job safety measures for their employees, the National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) has partnered with Parsippany, N.J.-based GAF to launch the GAF Commercial Roof Safety Guide (www.gaf.com/safety), a website focusing on low-slope roofing safety.

Four employees of Affordable Exteriors Inc. were routinely exposed to dangerous fall hazards while completing a residential roofing job for homebuilder Hildy Homes in Elkhorn. OSHA has cited Affordable Exteriors for two willful violations, carrying proposed penalties of $140,000, for failure to provide required fall protection and fall protection training.

New Haven roofing contractor employees were exposed to potentially fatal falls at a Bridgeport work site due to their employer's deliberate failure to supply required fall protection. OSHA's Bridgeport Area Officefound employees of Xtreme Restoration & Waterproofing LLC working without fall protection atop a two-story roof at a residential work site on June 16, 2014.

Pablo Lopez of Norcross has been cited by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration for three repeat and one serious safety violation following inspections at two work sites in Milton and Smyrna where employees were performing roofing work without fall protection.

Following a major hailstorm on May 18 and a resulting increase in construction, OSHA is extending enforcement activity and asks for Billings-area employers, workers and consumers to protect roofing and construction workers against fall hazards.