New York Congressman John Faso has introduced a bill to circumvent a longstanding New York law known as the Scaffold Law, which is meant to protect construction workers including those injured in scaffold accidents. According to a report in the Times Herald-Record, the Republican lawmaker’s proposal will undercut New York’s Scaffold Law by denying federal funds to any public or private construction projects that impose “absolute liability” on contractors and building owners for any fall-related injuries that workers suffer.
Instead, courts would apply a “comparative negligence” standard of liability, which means the injured workers may bear all or some of the responsibility. Opponents of the Scaffold Law have argued that it raises contractors’ insurance costs and the price of building projects, placing the burden on New York’s taxpayers who must spend more on construction of government and school buildings.
Statistics and the Law
New York’s Scaffold Law exists for a reason. About 2.3 million construction workers, or 65 percent of the construction industry, work on scaffolds. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), protecting workers from scaffold-related accidents may prevent about 60 deaths and 4,500 injuries. In a recent BLS study, 72 percent of workers injured in scaffolding accidents attributed the incident either to the planking or support giving way or to the employee slipping or being struck by a falling object.
Section 240 of the New York Labor Laws is commonly known as the “Scaffolding Law.” This particular statute governs the use of scaffolding in work sites. It requires contractors, property owners and their agents who erect, demolish, repair, alter, paint or clean a structure to be responsible for providing the necessary equipment, including scaffolding, to keep workers safe from falls on the job.
The Scaffold Law was enacted in the early part of the 20th century and essentially grants construction workers who are injured in fall-related accidents the ability to bring civil lawsuits against contractors, property owners, property managers or other parties responsible for keeping the jobsite safe. Falls are one of the main causes of construction accident injuries and deaths.
Workers often suffer life-changing injuries in scaffolding accidents including, but not limited to, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord trauma, internal injuries, multiple broken bones, etc. Such injuries may prevent workers from returning to the jobsite for a long period of time or even render them unable to work or earn a livelihood.
Why the Scaffold Law is Necessary
The Scaffold Law is crucial as it ensures the safety of workers in some of the world’s most dangerous jobs. A majority of laborers who work in the construction industry – from ironworkers and painters to carpenters and electricians – work on scaffolds. Without the Scaffold Law in place to protect workers, contracting firms may resort to cutting corners on safety measures. The current law helps hold developers and contractors accountable for keeping job sites safe. A change in the law would reduce the incentive for property owners and contractors to take life-saving precautions at work sites. In addition, the law protects both union and non-union workers and undocumented workers. Getting rid of this law or modifying it to the disadvantage of workers would result in vulnerable laborers losing their voices.
Protecting Workers’ Rights
If you have been injured in a scaffolding accident or a fall-related construction accident, you may be able to seek workers’ compensation benefits. In addition, you may be able to file a third-party claim for significant monetary damages against a party other than the employer or co-employees, who may have caused or contributed to the injury – such as general contractors, construction companies, sub-contractors, building owners, managing agents etc. Filing this type of a claim allows construction accident victims and families to have two sources of compensation available for their losses.
There are several steps you can take to protect your rights including promptly notifying your supervisor, gathering evidence from the scene of the accident, getting immediate medical attention for your injuries and maintaining a journal detailing your experience after the accident and during the time in which you were recovering.
If you or a loved one has been injured in a construction accident, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. Our law firm recovered $3,375,576 for a construction worker (an undocumented immigrant) who was injured on the job – one of the highest construction case settlements in New York that year.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
Please visit us at: www.WORK4YOULAW.com
Source: http://www.recordonline.com/news/20170919/faso-backs-bill-that-would-circumvent-new-yorks-scaffold-law