Data last updated: August 03, 2026
Rhode Island regulators issued 10 scaffolding citations over the past 12 months, and every single one was classified as Serious. The average penalty landed at $2,267, with a median of $1,986 — and Newport turned up as the city with the most cases on record. Small numbers, but if your company is one of the ten, the exposure is very real.
If you’ve been cited, or you suspect a citation is coming, talk to a Rhode Island OSHA defense attorney before you respond to anything in writing. You have only 15 working days from the date you receive the citation to formally contest it, and that clock does not pause for you to figure things out.
Why Every One of These Ten Citations Was Marked Serious
All ten Rhode Island scaffolding cases this period fell under the Serious category — not a single Other, Repeat, or Willful designation showed up in the data. That matters. A Serious classification means the inspector determined there was a real probability that the hazard could cause death or significant physical harm, and that the employer either knew or should have known about the condition. There’s no Willful or Repeat inflation dragging the average up here; these penalties reflect straightforward findings that scaffold conditions on site created genuine fall or structural risk.
The underlying rule in nearly all of these cases is the 1926.451 standard, OSHA’s general rulebook for scaffold safety in construction. It sets requirements for how a scaffold has to be built and rated for load, how workers are supposed to get on and off it safely, what fall protection needs to be in place at height, and how guardrails and planking have to be installed and maintained. It’s a broad standard, which is exactly why it generates citations across so many different trades — masonry, roofing, remodeling, general carpentry — anyone who puts a worker above ground level on a temporary platform.
Roofers Account for Half of Rhode Island’s Cases
Of the ten citations, five went to roofing contractors — exactly half. Residential remodelers picked up two, and specialty trade contractors picked up another two. That concentration in roofing isn’t surprising. Roofing work routinely involves scaffold or staging setups at height, tight timelines, and crews moving fast between jobs, which is precisely the combination that leads to missed guardrails, overloaded platforms, or improper access points. Masonry-adjacent trades show up too, which lines up with several of the named cases below involving building and stone work.
What These Citations Actually Cost
The dollar figures in Rhode Island’s recent cases range widely even within the Serious category alone. Dubon Masonry Construction, LLC in Central Falls was cited $5,958 under section 19260451 F14, issued June 8, 2026. Ear Construction Inc. in Newport received a $4,965 penalty under 19260451 A01, dated November 18, 2025. Soares Masonry, LLC in Jamestown was also fined $4,965, cited under 19260451 G01 on February 26, 2026. Pariseault Builders Inc., also in Newport, faced a $2,814 penalty under 19260451 B01, issued August 28, 2025. And NRK Enterprises LLC in Jamestown was cited $2,270 under the same 19260451 G01 provision, dated February 6, 2026.
Notice the spread: penalties ranged from roughly $2,270 up to nearly $6,000, even though every case here was Serious rather than Willful or Repeat. That variation usually comes down to the specific facts — how many workers were exposed, how obvious the hazard was, and the employer’s citation history. It’s also worth knowing that the average penalty reduction in Rhode Island over this period ran about 15%, meaning a meaningful share of employers who pushed back or negotiated ended up paying less than the initial number OSHA proposed. For more on how these figures get calculated in the first place, see this breakdown of OSHA scaffolding violations penalty amounts.
A 15% average reduction is not nothing, but it doesn’t happen automatically. It generally reflects employers who challenged the citation, provided additional documentation, or negotiated through legal counsel rather than simply paying the initial invoice. If you’re weighing whether it’s worth the effort to push back, a Rhode Island OSHA defense attorney can tell you within a short conversation whether your case has room to move.
The Clock Starts the Day You Open the Letter
Once a citation arrives, you have 15 working days to file a Notice of Contest. Miss that window and the citation, along with the proposed penalty, generally becomes final — no further negotiation, no hearing, no appeal. That’s a hard deadline, not a suggestion, and weekends and holidays don’t extend it.
Before that window closes, it’s worth understanding how to contest an OSHA citation the right way — what documentation to gather, whether an informal conference with the area office makes sense, and whether the underlying facts actually support the classification OSHA assigned. Given that every Rhode Island case this period was Serious rather than a lower-tier Other violation, there’s often real money at stake in getting that classification reviewed properly.
If you’ve received a scaffolding citation anywhere in Rhode Island, don’t wait until the deadline is close to start figuring out your options. Reach out to a Rhode Island OSHA defense attorney now, while you still have the full 15 working days to build a response.