Behavior-Based Safety Programs Ignore Hazardous Conditions on the Job
While New York employers and employers elsewhere have focused on eliminating employee mistakes to make work sites safer, employers also need to improve training, safety protocols and create redundancies so that construction workers are protected when human error contributes to a construction accident.
July 10, 2011
Many employers, including construction companies, have focused on workers' conduct on the job site as the key to ending workplace fatalities and injuries. The AFL-CIO reports that 4,340 workers were killed on the job in 2009, including 184 New York workers. In 2010, OSHA inspectors investigated 40 of the workplace fatalities in New York, but only assessed about $150,000 in penalties to New York employers combined.Labor advocates argue workers already take on too much responsibility to reduce workplace accidents and improve safety in the workplace. While workers definitely have a role to play in preventing New York construction accidents, employers must also bear part of the responsibility they share for keeping worksites and construction workers safe.
What Should Employers Do to Provide a Safe Workplace?
As Ron Kaminow, contributor to the union activist organization Labor Notes, suggests in a recent article, blaming employees for mistakes on-the-job does not solve the problems that created dangerous conditions. Employers should evaluate the policies and training that they have put in place to determine the causes that contribute to a fatality or injury on the worksite.
Short-staffing, lack of safety equipment, inadequate training on proper and safe techniques, and failure to implement safety protocols can all align to contribute to or cause a serious construction site accident. Construction workers should not have to walk off the job to bring unsafe conditions to their employer's attention, and they should have sufficient safety training and protocols in place so that deaths and serious injuries can be avoided when mistakes happen.
Workers that are seriously injured on the worksite and the family members of construction workers killed on the job in New York do have rights to compensation. Contact an experienced personal injury attorney to discuss your claim.
Article provided by Powers & Santola LLP
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