OSHA Fines NYC Contractors for Safety Violations

 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited two Queens contractors for exposing workers to falling and to electrical and fire hazards on a Manhattan job site. According to a report on ConstructionDive.com, the two companies have been fined a total of $117,170 by OSHA. One of the contractors, W&L Group Construction, faces eight repeat and six serious violations with a proposed fine of $93,170. The other company, a steel erection contractor, Top Master Industries Inc./H&J Iron Works, faces 10 serious violations and about $24,000 in fines. OSHA said it had previously cited W&L Construction for similar hazards on their job sites over the past four years.

Increase in Safety Violations
It is worth noting that the violations OSHA is fining these companies for involve two of the leading causes of death on construction sites: falls and electrocution. One of OSHA’s main focus points continues to be fall protection hazards. Falls are always on the top of the agency’s list of most common violations and accounted for 359 out of 899 total construction deaths in 2014.
These fines and citations also come at a time when it was reported that the New York City Department of Buildings has increased the number of stop-work orders issued in the midst of an increase in safety violations on city construction sites. In the last year, New York City has seen 16 construction-related fatalities including a pedestrian who was killed in the crane collapse in Tribeca.
OSHA’s 78 percent fine increase went into effect Aug. 1. The higher fines will be in effect for violations that occur after Nov. 2, 2015. OSHA raised its maximum penalty for serious violations from $7,000 to $12,471 and the fine for willful and/or repeated violations from $70,000 to $124,709.
The Fatal Four
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 4,821 workers were killed on the job in 2014, on average, more than 92 a week or over 13 deaths each day. The numbers also showed that 804 Hispanic or Latino workers were killed as a result of work-related injuries in 2014, on average, more than 15 deaths a week or two Latino workers killed every single day of the year. Fatalities involving contractors accounted for 17 percent of all deadly work injuries in 2014.
Out of 4,386 worker deaths in private industry during the calendar year 2014, 899 or 20.5 percent were in construction. The leading causes of worker fatalities in the construction industry were falls, followed by electrocution, struck by object and caught in/between accidents. These common construction accident causes, known as the “Fatal Four,” were responsible for more than half (60.6 percent) of construction worker fatalities in 2014. The BLS estimates that eliminating the Fatal Four would save 545 workers’ lives in America every year.
Some of the common violations on the part of contractors in New York City include failure to install guardrails to prevent slip-and-fall accidents; failure to ground power lines that may lead to electrocution; failure to provide fall safety devices such as harnesses and safety nets; failure to properly brace or ventilate trenches. All of these safety violations may result in serious or even catastrophic injuries to workers.
Compensation for Injured Workers
When workers are injured in construction accidents, the consequences can be devastating, not just for these victims, but also their families. Injured victims often find themselves unable to work for long periods of time. Sometimes, they may be unable to return to work or earn a livelihood. Workers who are injured on the job can seek workers’ compensation benefits. In addition, they may be able to file a third-party claim for significant money damages against a party other than the employer, who may have caused or contributed to the worker’s injury, and have two sources of compensation available to them. Examples of third parties include, but are not limited to, general contractors, sub-contractors, building owners, property owners and/or property managers, etc.
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.constructiondive.com/news/osha-fines-2-ny-contractors-117k-for-fall-protection-electrical-hazard-vi/423560/