Gilco Contracting Inc. received $328,500 in proposed penalties for 13 safety violations after inspectors from the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) visited three Alabama jobsites in August and November 2007.

"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 Tuscaloosa, Ala., contractor 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. Gilco Contracting had received citations for similar violations after inspections in May 2005 and October 2006.

The company also has been cited for three serious violations with proposed penalties of $10,800 for using improper equipment, and three other-than-serious citations with penalties of $2,700 for recordkeeping violations.

A repeat violation is defined as one for which an employer has been cited previously for a substantially similar condition after the original citation has become a final order of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. A serious citation is issued when death or serious physical harm is likely to result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations to contest the violations and proposed penalties before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. The sites were inspected by staff from OSHA's Birmingham Area Office at 950 22nd St., Room 1050; telephone 205-731-1534.