Construction accident deaths at worksites in New York City appear to be on the rise with a majority of those deaths occurring on non-union sites. According to a report in DocumentedNY.com, immigrant workers are also disproportionately dying on construction sites. In response, policymakers are asking Governor Kathy Hochul to sign a pending bill that seeks to improve safety and reduce deaths and injuries at construction sites.
About 80% of private construction in New York is done by non-union workers. The shift in the past decade of not hiring union construction labor began as the city started its recovery from the 2008 recession. For open-shop worksite contractors, employing mostly non-union workers while hiring some union workers can be up to 30% cheaper compared to having an all union worksite.
Dangers on Non-Union Worksites
One reason they are cheaper is because contractors are not required to pay union wages or benefits. They are also not obligated to follow union rules. A report in 2021 by the Economic Policy Institute found that union construction workers earned on average 40% more than their non-union counterparts.
The death of a construction worker on Nov. 28 who fell 162 feet while working at a non-union construction site in the Upper West Side is raising many safety concerns again. In an earlier incident, on Nov. 1, 27-year-old immigrant worker Raúl Tenelema Puli was killed at a Brooklyn construction site.
The next day, another worker was killed at a Queens construction site. In 2018, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) reported that 86% of construction accident deaths in New York were on non-union worksites. That report also found that non-union sites were not as thoroughly inspected as union work sites.
Surge in Construction Accidents
In the Nov. 28 fatal incident, the worker who died was employed by a scaffolding company that had racked up more than $10,000 in Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations in 2018. The New York City Department of Buildings immediately issued a stop-work order for the site and is currently investigating. There have been at least 24 construction worker fatalities this year. A majority of those deaths occurred in New York City and were mostly caused by falls.
An analysis of OSHA data shows that in 2021, there were 39 fatalities in New York construction sites, an increase from 29 deaths that occurred in 2020. Of all the deaths in 2021, 82% occurred in non-union sites. Injuries sustained in falls also surged to record highs with 194 workers injured in 2021.
Safety advocates believe this year’s total death rate in such accidents may surpass last year’s and hope legislation like Carlos’ Law, which was passed in August, but has yet to be signed into law by Gov. Hochul, will reduce the dangers for workers. First introduced in 2018 and named after Carlos Moncayo, an immigrant worker who was killed in a 2015 trench collapse, this law will place criminal penalties upon contractors to the amount of at least $300,000 for a misdemeanor and $500,000 for a felony conviction in the event of a worker’s death or injury. State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was the lead sponsor of the legislation, believes that the law will push contractors to prioritize workers’ safety and avoid facing criminal liability.
Workers’ Rights
A lot of construction work in New York City requires ironworkers, steelworkers, carpenters, masons, bricklayers, painters, window washers, and electricians who carry out their job while on scaffolds, ladders, platforms, etc. Workers injured in falls can bring civil actions against general construction companies, managing agents, building owners, some contractors and sub-contractors, property owners/managers, etc. Construction accident injuries can be debilitating and sometimes, even catastrophic or fatal.
A construction accident victim can seek workers’ compensation benefits from his or her employer. In addition, workers and their families may be able to file a third-party lawsuit for substantial money damages against a number of parties, and thus have two sources of compensation. Third-party claims are filed against parties other than the employer or co-employees and may include general contractors, sub-contractors, building owners, managing agents, construction companies, etc. In cases where a worker dies from injuries suffered on the job, surviving family members may seek death benefits through workers’ compensation and/or file a wrongful death claim against a third party.
Contacting an Experienced Lawyer
If you have suffered injuries in a construction-related 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. Our law firm also recovered $3,000,000 for a man who fell and suffered two broken legs when he walked into an open elevator shaft. Also, one of our clients obtained a verdict for $43,940,000 and another of our clients got a verdict for $23,500,000, both in medical malpractice cases.
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, lead poisoning and medical malpractice including, brachial plexus palsy (Erb’s palsy) and cerebral palsy cases in New York, 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: https://documentedny.com/2022/12/02/construction-worker-death-osha-new-york/