There is something that I have learned and have passed down to my apprentices in the type of work that I do, and that is to NEVER cut corners. Once you start, you play hell trying to break those bad habits until, one day, they reach up and bite you in the rear!
You have professional contractors, and then you have your rat contractors. Unfortunately, sounds like this employer is too much of a rat contractor to care about the safety of his employees. Would they still be willing to pay you and bring you a paycheck while you are laid up in the hospital after a good 40' fall? I doubt it. If anything, you would just be an expendible
item, kinda like a drill bit, in their eyes. If it breaks, just replace it. You did right by refusing to do an unsafe act.
