Many construction workers in New York have faced injuries due to negligence. As much as it seems there’s a move to make their working conditions safe- we still hear of quite common accidents.
If a construction worker is injured on the job they are eligible for workers’ compensation. However, the funds received form it are not enough to treat serious injuries that occur. Also, construction sites are often utilized by many employees. There are both contractors and subcontractors that are present so sometimes one of these third parties is the cause of the injury for the employee working at the site.
Due to the negligence law, a worker that is injured is allowed to file a lawsuit against a third party for poor working conditions if it was the cause the their injury, if the third party was aware of the conditions and didn’t do anything about it but if you are compensated by a third party lawsuit you will have to pay back any worker’s compensation that you received.
According to the New York State Senate Labor Law 240 is as follows:
- All contractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and two-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the work, in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting, cleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect, or cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor, scaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys, braces, irons, ropes, and other devices which shall be so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed.
No liability pursuant to this subdivision for the failure to provide protection to a person so employed shall be imposed on professional engineers as provided for in article one hundred forty-five of the education law, architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-seven of such law or landscape architects as provided for in article one hundred forty-eight of such law who do not direct or control the work for activities other than planning and design. This exception shall not diminish or extinguish any liability of professional engineers or architects or landscape architects arising under the common law or any other provision of law. - Scaffolding or staging more than twenty feet from the ground or floor, swung or suspended from an overhead support or erected with stationary supports, except scaffolding wholly within the interior of a building and covering the entire floor space of any room therein, shall have a safety rail of suitable material properly attached, bolted, braced or otherwise secured, rising at least thirty-four inches above the floor or main portions of such scaffolding or staging and extending along the entire length of the outside and the ends thereof, with only such openings as may be necessary for the delivery of materials. Such scaffolding or staging shall be so fastened as to prevent it from swaying from the building or structure
- All scaffolding shall be so constructed as to bear four times the maximum weight required to be dependent therefrom or placed thereon when in use.
Information retrieved from the New York Senate Homepage for accuracy regarding the law.
If you have been injured at work it is important to let the owner of the property know immediately, receive medical treatment and have copies of all documentation from your doctor and specialists regarding your injury and contact an injury lawyer who can help you along the process of you lawsuit. You can do so by contacting Yuriy Prakhin Law Office at 877-245-0135.
