Check out this week’s Cavalcade of Risk, which is hosted by Nina Kallen, a Massachusetts attorney who runs the blog Insurance Coverage Law in Massachusetts. These carnivals are a good way to discover new blogs and we are happy to discover this one, right in our own backyard.
Flammable Ice Cream – an interesting Loss Prevention case study from Liberty Mutual that addresses the issue of flammable liquid hazards in unexpected place.
America’s Best Hospitals Ranked – Complex Care Blog offers links to the recent rankings, as well as an interesting video on thinking differently about health care from the Mayo Clinic.
Beneath the Bell Jar: Companies Confront a Rise in Workplace Suicides – Emily Holbrook looks at this tough issue in the November issue of Risk Management.
Employee whistleblower protections in food new safety law – at Today’s Workplace, attorney Jason Zuckerman discusses the robust whistleblower protections included in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which are included to ensure that workers can disclose food safety concerns without fear of reprisal. He offers a detailed overview of the provisions.
Update on OSHA’s worker safety in construction efforts – OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab’s keynote speech, which was delivered at the Building Trades Employers’ Association of New York 2010 Safety Conference.
TSA Brings Problems on Itself – we discussed TSA employee stress earlier in the week. Workplace human behavior consultant and author Aubrey Daniels suggests that better attention to service and training might go a long way to reducing traveler tension – and would also, no doubt, make things easier for the screeners themselves.
Fatal occupational injuries at road construction sites, 2003-07 (PDF) – a report recently issued by the Monthly Labor Review, which analyzes trends and circumstances around the fatalities.
Remote Workers Need More Than Cookie-Cutter Safety Strategies – from Risk and Insurance, a discussion on telecommuting workers and an approach to keep them safe.
Posts Tagged ‘construction’
Cavalcade of Risk and assorted noteworthy news items from the blogosphere
Wednesday, December 1st, 2010It’s fresh Health Wonk Review and news roundup day
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010Grab a coffee and head on over to Hank Stern’s InsureBlog, where he’s posted Health Wonk Review: In the Here and Now. He describes it as a “minimalist” style, which means more meat, less potatoes!
And in other noteworthy news this week:
Twittering insurers – Terry Golesworthy features an interesting post about how insurers are using Twitter, along with lists of insurance leaders by number of followers, by growth and by activity. He observes, “Twitter continues to be used by most insurers to provide soft marketing messages about promotions, sponsorships and customer endorsements. Other activities include financial quizzes, insurance related education materials, warnings regarding impended natural disasters and Facebook announcements. Some insurers do respond publically to customer questions but, largely, this is not the significant activity.” In the comments on his list, insurance agent Ryan Hanley (@AlbanyInsurance) notes that agencies are actually driving the social media movement, and that is based on their using the channel for relationships rather than as a broadcast tool.
Safety is #1 – At The Pump Handle, Celeste Monforton posts that “just in time for the Labor Day holiday,” a new study has been released by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, indicating 85 percent of workers rank safety on the job as their top labor standard.
Misclassification – State efforts focusing on employer misclassification continue to be strong and there appears to be a deep vein to mine.
- In California, Country Builders Inc is paying a whopping $3.9 million in back pay, fines, and payment to the work comp fund as a settlement with a suit filed by the Attorney General for various labor law infractions, including misclassification to avoid workers comp payments. In addition, the company is barred from working on government-funded public works for three years.
- The New York construction industry should go on notice. Governor Patterson has just signed the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, “…which creates a clear litmus test to distinguish the difference between a worker and an independent contractor. It also provides a method to clearly define which business on a construction project is responsible for which workers. Finally, for the first time in State history, it imposes monetary and criminal penalties specifically for the act of employee misclassification on construction projects.”
- A new Wisconsin law strengthens enforcement tools for targeting construction misclassification. The law will take effect on January 1.
- While the construction industry has been a major area of focus, other industries such as the trucking industry have also been targets of probes. And then there is the continuing FedEx driver saga, which my colleague has posted on frequently.
Other employment law litigation – Wal-Mart has appealed for a review by the Supreme Court in a discrimination suit the largest employment discrimination suit in U,S. history. The decade-old case involves more than a million current and former female workers. Steven Greenhouse of The new York Times discusses the issues in the case and the potential $1 billion or more in damages that Wal-Mart could face if the Supreme Court allows a class action suit to proceed.
September is National Preparedness Month – FEMA has designated September as and offers emergency preparation resources for employers. At the Risk Management Monitor blog, commercial risk management expert Brian Smith replies to Emily Holbrook’s questions about disaster preparation and business insurance.
Massachusetts Comp: The Power of “Any 3 Persons”
Thursday, August 26th, 2010Massachusetts has been in the forefront of the independent contractor issue. The state has narrowed the definition of “independent contractor” to the point where almost anybody can be defined as an employee. But how do you enforce this? Where is the leverage to confront employers who are avoiding comp premiums by misclassifying their employees as independent contractors?
Under the direct influence of labor unions, the Commonwealth has empowered “any 3 persons” to take action against suspected comp fraud. Governor Deval Patrick recently signed a law that allows any 3 people to file suit against an employer who fails to comply with the workers comp statute. If that sounds pretty broad, well, it is. Here is first section of the new law:
Whenever facts exist showing that an employer has failed to comply with this chapter, then any 3 persons may bring a civil action and that civil action shall be deemed a private attorneys general action….Plaintiffs shall prove a violation of this chapter by a preponderance of the evidence.
I do wonder what those “facts” and the supporting evidence might look like. Beyond that, this language invites lawsuits for any violation of the workers comp statute, a very wide parameter of possibilities, indeed. The focus, however, will be on premium fraud: deliberate misclassification of employees; paying people under the table; and failing to carry workers comp insurance altogether. The plaintiffs can collect up to $25,000 in unpaid premiums and an additional $25,000 in damages, plus “costs and reasonable attorneys fees.”
These suits must be filed no sooner than 90 days after a policy ends (how would the “3 persons” know this date?). Then the process will take an additional 90 days. So six months after the policy ends, all hell breaks loose.
Bitter Remedy
Where are the “3 persons” likely to come from? I’m guessing that disappointed bidders on (increasingly rare) construction projects are likely to team up with disgruntled (former) employees of the successful bidder to form a merry band of 3. You might find three laid off employees/independent contractors jumping in to get back at their former bosses. Heck, the standard of “3 persons” is so low, this game is not much more difficult than playing the state lottery.
It will be fascinating to watch this new statute roll out. Simmering rivalries are going to boil over. The frictional cost of doing business in the Bay State is about to go up. The ultimate question, of course, is how effective this new weapon against premium fraud will be. To the extent it exposes unfair business practices, it will help level the playing field for all Massachusetts employers. But given the broad and ultimately vague language of the enabling statute, there is plenty of opportunity for abuse in this cure for abuse. From a blogger’s perspective, of course, it’s just about perfect.
Health Wonk Review’s Recess Edition and news from the blogosphere
Thursday, August 6th, 2009Congress may be on vacation but the dedicated health policy bloggers are certainly on the case so you should face no shortage of wonkery. Jaan Sidorov has posted the August Recess Edition of Health Wonk Review at Disease Management Care Blog – well worth your perusal.
And as long as we’re on the topic of health care, kudos to the folks at Kaiser Family Foundation who have put together an interactive tool that allows for side-by-side comparisons of two or more healthcare reform proposals across a number of key characteristics and plan components. It will be regularly updated to reflect changes in the proposals and to incorporate major new proposals as they are announced.
Other news from the blogosphere and beyond
OSHA – President Obama has nominated David Michaels as Assistant Secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor. David Michaels, PhD, MPH, is an epidemiologist and is currently Research Professor at the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. In addition to his biography in the release, read more about him in his biography at George Washington University. The folks at OSHA Underground have more and this nominee is also welcome news to The Pump Handle gang as evidenced by the comments in the announcement post.
In more OSHA news, Heidi at The Facility Blog posts about OSHA’s new national emphasis program (NEP) on recordkeeping. The NEP was prompted after congressional hearings last year which raised the issue of under-reporting. The program will institute a policy that prompts recordkeeping inspections at employers’ establishments with low incidence rates in historically high rate industries and will also incorporate inspections of a sample of construction firms. See Heidi’s post for more details on the program.
Pharma – Freshly back from his vacation in the Tanzanian bush, Joe Paduda offers his take on the workers comp implications of the Administration’s drug deal.
Lean claims handling – Roberto Ceniceros has made lots of good posts over at Comp Time this week. Read about how the manufacturing trend to streamlined processing is surfacing in insurance as “lean” claims handling.
Firefighters – August 17 to 21 is National Firefighter Health Week. Despite the dangers that they face on the job every day, the real threat to their health is heart disease – nearly half of all firefighter deaths are caused by heart attacks. The National Volunteer Fire Council sponsors a site with resources and programs designed to encourage first responders to learn their risk factors, commit to making healthy lifestyle changes, and keep the momentum going all year.
NY construction training scam – a new law in New York City requires 10 hours of training for all workers hired at high-rise buildings begun after July 1. The New York Daily news reports that fake 30-hour construction training cards are surfacing. Apparently, three companies in New York and one in Nevada have been busted for issuing these bogus cards and a few dozen other companies are under investigation.
Lighter side – Consumer Insurance Blog posts an amusing video of clever ads from Bangkok Insurance which do a good job illustrating the concept of probability.
Cavalcade of Risk #80 is posted; other news notes
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009Get your biweekly fill of risk-related blog posts – Rita Schwab does a great job in hosting Cavalcade of Risk #80 at her blog Supporting Safer Healthcare.
And in other news …
Construction – According to the release of a report from the Workers Defense Project, Texas is the most dangerous state in the union for construction workers. In 2007, 142 Texas construction workers died, more than any other state. California ranked second, with 81 deaths. According to the report, surveys with more than 300 construction workers revealed that more than two-thirds of the respondents did not receive basic safety training before starting their jobs.
VA compensability – Jon quoted in WaPo – In February, my colleague Jon Coppelman posted about the case of a Virginia truck driver who was found by the side of the road laying by his truck and who subsequently died after lingering in a coma. Sunday, The Washington Post covered the story of Arthur Pierce quoting John and Workers Comp Insider about the attempt by Pierce’s wife to change Virgina law related to cases like her husband’s. Apparently, investigators who reconstructed the scene learned that Pierce fell about 12 feet and injured his head. If he had been found dead at the scene, the fatal injuries would have been presumed to arise out of employment, but due to a quirk in the Virgina law, that presumption does not extend to those who linger for a matter of time before dying, even if that time is just a few hours. So far, her efforts to change the law have been unsuccessful but she plans to try again in January.
Slim Jim Plant Explosion – Insurance Journal has a report that investigators at the scene of last week’s North Carolina Slim Jim tragedy have determined that a gas leak caused the explosion and that the ATF has concluded the explosion was an accident and closed its criminal investigation.
NIOSH – Protect your family from take home toxins – report on exposures to substances such as lead, asbestos and beryllium, transported from the workplace to home.
Seasonal Safety – Florida AgSafe had a good library of safety articles and guidelines for agricultural workers – also, check out their Safety News and Notes newsletter, which is archived on the site or you can sign up to get them by mail.
Buried alive
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008What could be more horrifying than the idea of being buried alive? It’s the stuff of nightmares. novels, and scary movies, tapping into one of our most primal fears. Yet unfortunately, buried alive is not just the stuff of fiction. Every year, it’s the same old story – collapsing trenches kill workers at both commercial and residential work sites. Deaths are sometimes caused by asphyxiation or drowning when trenches fill with soil or water. It’s also quite common for workers to die from being crushed by the sheer weight of the soil – which can exert pressure of more than two tons per cubic foot of dirt. Sometimes, workers are alive and talking while they are being rescued only to die during or shortly after the rescue, succumbing to injuries from the sheer pressure of the weight, which compresses the chest and cuts off oxygen to muscles and extremities.
News reports often focus on desperate rescue efforts with co-workers and emergency crews frantically digging to free a trapped colleague – yet many of the deaths happen when workers jump in an unsecured trench to try to save a colleague and a secondary collapse occurs. Trench rescues require speed and expertise – trained rescue workers understand the risks to both the endangered worker and to rescue workers. Before a rescue can safely occur, the site must be secured – something that should have happened before the collapse. Time is critical because even when a worker’s head or upper torso is visible, irreversible crushing injuries can occur in less than 10 minutes.
These are immensely frustrating deaths because they are preventable with proper safety precautions – but all too often, time and budget trump safety. Breathless news coverage often refers to the accidents as freak events but that implies that the event couldn’t have been anticipated or prevented. Unfortunately, there is nothing unusual about the collapse of an unsecured trench – without proper safety precautions, any excavation over 5 feet which is deeper than it is wide is a problem waiting to happen.
Workplace trench safety: Related resources and postings
OSHA – Trenching and Excavation
OSHA Trench Safety Quick Card (PDF)
OSHA Confined Spaces
Excavations: A guide to safe work practices – 20 minute video clip from WorkSafeBC
Trench safety publications and information
Call Before You Dig – resources for nonprofessionals
In addition to being at risk for trench collapses, the do-it-yourself who tackles home improvement projects may face electrocution and other risks when digging is involved. A new, federally-mandated national Call Before You Dig 811 number was created to help protect homeowners from unintentionally hitting underground utility lines while working on digging projects. In addition, each state has
different rules and regulations governing digging, some stricter than others – state-by-state requirements can also be found at the 811-dig link.
Health Wonk Review, scaffold survivor update, hand protection, and potential cancer cluster
Friday, June 13th, 2008Jane Hiebert White has posted a great edition of Health Wonk Review: Washington Week at Health Affairs – and she notes that this issue coincides with Academy Health’s Annual Research Meeting held in DC this past week, a gathering based on the concept that health policy should be informed by research. In this HWR issue, one of the major themes centers on health care reform. It’s worth your time to check it out – it may be one of our biggest and most substantive issues yet.
Survival story – at the beginning of the year, we posted about miracle survivor Alcides Moreno who lived through a NY scaffolding collapse which sent him plummeting 47 stories. Today, the New York Post features a story about Moreno entitled 47-story guy walking tall. But not all the news associated with this story is good: his brother who was also on the scaffold was killed in the fall. Earlier this week, The New York Times covered the OSHA report about the accident, which found fault with City Wide Window Cleaning, the service that employed the Morenos, and Tractel, the firm that had repaired the scaffold.
OSHA issued five citations against City Wide for what it called serious violations. Three carried proposed fines of $7,000 apiece, the highest the agency can impose. One was for lack of a system to protect against falls — cables that would have left the Morenos dangling at the top of the building when the scaffold gave way.
Another citation against City Wide was for failing to train employees in how to inspect the scaffold, and for not training them to wear “personal protective equipment” before they stepped onto the rig. The article lists other charges against both companies. Commenting about the fines imposed, the Daily News editorializes that death comes cheap, noting that, “Financial penalties like that are meaningless as a deterrent to corner-cutting by contractors.”
Hand injury prevention – According to an article on hand injuries by Don Groce in Occupational Hazards, gloves can prevent injuries and reduce costs. Recent research shows that “The cost of hand injuries in just one sector of the construction industry is six times what it would cost those employers to offer every employee appropriate hand protection.” This preventive measure represents potential to reduce pain, reduce lost productivity, and save dollars. According to the CDC, hand injuries account for more than a million emergency department visits by U.S. workers per year. Groce’s article also discusses advances in glove manufacturing and various types of safety glove alternatives.
Dupont cancer cluster? – Celeste Monforton of The Pump Handle raises the question of whether there is a cancer cluster associated with Dupont in response to 19 cases of rare carcinoid tumors among DuPont employees, with 6 of the cases surfacing among workers at the Washington Works plant in West Virginia. She reports that adverse health effects have been associated with exposure to perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA or C8), the chemical used to make Teflon and other non-stick surfaces.
News Roundup: trouble in FL; medical apartheid; exclusive remedy in NJ; regulators caving, and more
Monday, April 14th, 2008Trouble brewing in Florida – Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters is looking at a proposed regulation in Florida for hospital reimbursement and he is not liking what he sees. He says its a situation that is likely to “scare the pants off you.”
Medical apartheid – Richard Eskow of Sentinel Effect posts about recent studies by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, which show extreme disparities in medical care for whites and black. Of the studies, the South Florida Times states: “… elderly black and Hispanic patients often received substandard care for common but serious conditions like heart attacks, congestive heart failure and pneumonia. Researchers say their data suggests that the nation’s healthcare system is racially and ethnically segregated, not just for the elderly, but across the board.”
Troubling questions about regulators and public health interests – are regulators who are charged with protecting the health and safety of American workers and the general public succumbing to political and corporate pressure? Liz Borkowski of The Pump Handle blogs about a CBS investigation into why why the Centers for Disease Control slashed its Beryllium Study. In raising the question of whether officials ceded to political and corporate pressure in downscaling a health study of residents living near Brush Wellman’s largest beryllium-manufacturing plant, CBS questions whether the CDC “put politics before public health concerns.”
Recent reporting in the Las Vegas Sun investigates OSHA’s practice of reversing its findings and cutting fines for employers involved in construction fatalities. Reporters found nine instances where penalties for safety violations related to these fatalities had been scaled back after OSHA officials met privately with contractors. This reporting is the second part of a two-part series on construction deaths in Nevada. The first segment entitled Pace is the New Peril looks at a recent building boom that has claimed the lives of nine workers in sixteen months.
Exclusive remedy prevails in NJ – a suit for damages against a NJ employer was dismissed by the state’s superior court in the case of a driver who was struck by a vehicle while unloading supplies from his truck. The employee had sued claiming gross negligence on the part of his employer as well as the company where the delivery occurred, stating that he had not been provided cones or flares and had alerted his employer about the safety problems that existed at this particular delivery spot. In so deciding, judges said there was not enough evidence in the case to show the companies “deliberately intended to harm (Dadura) or knew that the consequences of its inaction were substantially certain to result in harm.” In most states, there is a very high bar for piercing exclusive remedy – employer negligence would have to reach a level of being intentional or certain.
Combustible Dust bill – Last week, a House Education and Labor Committee passed a bill that would require OSHA to issue an interim final standard regulating combustible industrial dust within 90 days and a finalized standard within 18 months. This progress represents only one hurdle however – the bill still must gain House and Senate approval in the face of significant opposition.
Soldiers suffering high rate of mental health problems – The New York Times reports that army leaders are concerned about the mental health of soldiers who face multiple deployments to Iraq. More than 197,000 have deployed more than once, and more than 53,000 have deployed three or more times. According to an Army survey of combat troops sent to Iraq for the third or fourth time, more than one in four show signs of anxiety, depression or acute stress. This means that American employers should expect a high rate of PTSD for citizen soldier veterans when they return to the workplace.
Cool tools
Thursday, February 28th, 2008From time to time, we like to share a mixed bag of useful tools ranging from health and safety resources to productivity enhancers. Here are our latest finds:
Compliance – State labor legislation enacted in 2007 – the Monthly Labor Review’s 29-page PDF offers a summary of major labor changes on a state-by-state basis, including minimum wage, immigration initiatives, child labor, worker privacy, and many other legal matters.
Trucking – Safe Stat is a safety resource for trucking, transportation and fleet safety. It’s a Department of Transportation site that includes such features as SafeStat, Crash Profile, Program Measures, and Current Analysis Results.
California – PD Rater bills itself as “a free benefits calculator for California.
Georgia – Georgia Tech’s OSHA 21D Consultation Program provides a free, confidential, on-site consultation service for small companies (fewer than 500 employees) in Georgia that need assistance in occupational safety and health.
Spanish – Georgia Tech’s OSH program also offers construction safety information in Spanish: Seguridad en la Construcción. The program includes posters, fliers and PowerPoint presentations. Other Spanish safety programs are also available.
Annoyances – Do you ever make a quick call and find yourself stuck in a nightmare automated loop and you can’t access the service you called for? Grrr. Here are two services that might help. Get Human is a company-specific database of phone numbers that will bypass the robots and get you directly to a human customer service rep. Sometimes they provide a direct number and in other cases, they give you the magic formula code numbers that will get you through. I’ve used this service a few times and it works. Someone also recently pointed me to an alternative service along the same lines, except it will do most of the work for you. Bringo! allows you to choose a company that you’d like to call from a list, you enter your number, and Bringo will call you back and connect you after they get through the phone tree and reach a human.
Travel productivity – If you travel a lot for work, FlightStats might be a lifesaver. The site allows you to track lights in real time, check on airport delays and wait time, and a links to a variety of other flight-related tools.
Search – Google has more search tools and web tools than you probably realized, some tucked away in various corners of Google that you may not have occasion to visit. Simply Google lets you access all Google’s tools one page without having to poke around to find them.
NY scaffolding: one miracle survivor saved by physics; others not so lucky
Monday, February 4th, 2008When cables broke on a scaffold on the 47th floor of a New York high-rise residential building on a crisp December day, it took only about 6 seconds for the two window washers who had been on the platform to plummet 500 feet to the ground. Edgar Moreno was killed instantly but, astonishingly, his brother Alcides Moreno survived the fall.
The word “miracle” is often tossed about lightly, but in this case, Alcides Moreno’s survival was part miracle, part physics, and part good medicine. As Moreno fell, he clung to the scaffolding, riding it to the ground and the platform provided wind resistance that slowed his fall. While his brother Edgar struck the ground at a probable speed of about 100 miles per hour, experts say that Alcides’ descent probably slowed to about 45 miles per hour. Platform cables acting like the tail of a kite may have slowed him further.
Philip Barie, chief of critical care at New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, who has treated fall survivors before, talked about the odds:
“You get above six stories, it gets unusual,” he said. “You get above 10 stories, it’s rare. We’ve had two people survive 12, one person survive 14 and one person survive 19. Forty-seven stories is uncharted territory.”
Barie said he didn’t know if Moreno set a record. No, he did not, at least according to the Free Fall Research Page. The record was made by a Russian airman, who survived a 22,000 foot fall in 1942 after his bomber was attacked by German planes. (There are many other fascinating fall survival tales at this site, and Moreno’s story is on the front page.)
Of course, Moreno suffered grievous injuries – broken ribs, a broken arm, shattered legs and spine damage. He was in a coma for weeks and has undergone more than 16 operations. But within a few weeks, the prognosis looked good not only for his survivability, but likelihood that he would be able to walk again. In mid-January, he was dismissed from the hospital to a rehab facility.
Few miracles, many deaths
It is sadly ironic that Morena survived a 500 foot fall, but William Bracken was killed in a 19-foot fall in a scaffold collapse in Mooreville, PA about 10 days ago. And in the city of New York alone, there have been at least two more scaffolding deaths since Moreno’s fall. High winds were blamed for a scaffold collapse in Brooklyn that killed Jose Palacios in a 12-story fall last week. This followed on the heels of the death of Yuriy Vanchytskyy in a 42-story fall from the top of Trump SoHo, a condominium hotel under development.
Repeat safety violations
State records show that in the Moreno incident, the scaffolding had been cited for 10 violations in June, including four that were repeat violations. According to news reports, the brothers had complained about safety issues but were told the scaffolding was safe. Neither of the brothers were wearing safety harnesses when the accident occurred.
Repeat citations are not an uncommon story. A New York Times investigation into the collapse that killed Vanchytskyy found that his employer, DeFama Concrete, had a history of safety violations, had been fined tens of thousands of dollars in penalties, and had another worker death on record – the 2004 death of an employee who perished after falling 60 feet from the platform of a crane. In that accident, OSHA found a failure to provide sufficient safety devices. These fines and citations are apparently little more than a slap on the wrist because offending contractors are still hired to work on some of the city’s most prestigious new construction projects.
Worsening employment practices and the underground economy
City Limits looks at the matter of construction safety in New York, a problem that seems to be worsening:
“According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on work fatalities, construction deaths in New York City more than doubled from 2005 to 2006, from 20 to 43. (Data for 2007 is not yet available.) Over that period, New York City also had a higher percentage of construction deaths than the U.S. overall, according to BLS: “the construction sector accounted for 43 percent of all fatalities; nationally, construction also led other sectors … accounting for 21 percent of all job-related fatal injuries.” The city’s Department of Buildings (DOB), however, reported that between Jan. 1, 2007 and Oct. 31, 2007, construction-related fatalities dropped 43 percent from the same period in 2006, from 14 to 8, and injuries stayed constant – but accidents on high-rise sites increased from 23 to 42.”
Part of the problem? City Limits links to and cites a recent report by the Fiscal Policy Institute (PDF) attributing much of the problem in New York construction to “worsening employment practices.” City Limits summarizes this part of the report:
” …the construction industry employs more than 200,000 workers in New York City, almost a quarter of whom work in the illegal “underground” construction industry. Not only does this lead to a half-billion-dollar annual financial loss because of unpaid payroll taxes and workers compensation premiums, according to the report, but it correlates with dangerous practices. Data from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “indicate a strong correlation between construction fatalities and the characteristics of the underground economy: half of the deaths occurred among workers at very small construction companies, three-fourths of the workers involved worked for non-union companies, and failure to provide safety training was cited in over half of the cases.”
It’s a horrifying and daunting problem, but to their credit, city officials are taking action, and some improvements have occurred since 2006. A Suspended Scaffold Worker Safety Task Force was formed and several scaffolding-related laws were enacted to increase penalties. Many are also calling for an overhaul of the Department of Buildings, the regulatory body, which many fault for being slow and reactive.
Of course, all the deaths that we’ve discussed have occurred since these laws were enacted. The city needs to continue focusing on this issue because Alcides Moreno’s story notwithstanding, the miracle plan does not make for good safety policy.
(Thanks to rawblogXport for pointers to many of the links we’ve cited.)
