Articles Tagged with Boston work injury attorney

We have all been burned at some point in our lives.  Whether we are talking about being burned on the stove, suffering a moderate to severe sunburn or actually being badly burned by fire or electricity, we know just how painful burn injuries can be.  For the most part, our experiences are limited to fairly mild burns to a small area of our body.  Unfortunately, some workers are not that lucky. There are few things more painful or serious than serious burn injuries.

weldingDoctors grade burns according to the severity.  We are usually dealing with the issue of the depth of the burn, as measured in degrees, and the size of the burn on a patient’s body, as measured in a percentage.  Most people have heard of first, second and third-degree burns.  A first-degree burn is something like a mild sunburn that may blister or peel, and a third degree burn involves the destruction all dermal (skin) layers as well as some muscle beneath.  However, there is what are known to doctors as fourth-degree burns that involve full thickness destruction. This means that the burn goes through all layers of skin and then destroys bone and other tissues. If a fourth-degree burn is to a large area of the injured worker, the result is often fatal.  Even if the burn does not kill the injured worker, the body will be very susceptible to staph and other secondary infections, because the skin is the body’s best defense to bacteria and many viruses.
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A recent article in Staffing Industry Analysts examines how companies can effectively share the responsibility of keeping temporary workers safe.  In this case, we are talking about sharing the responsibility for worker safety between the temporary employment staffing agency and the company that uses the temporary workers on their projects.

workIt should be noted that in today’s economy, there are many different types of temp jobs.  While we often think of office workers and retail help, we are now seeing temp workers being used in factory settings on a regular basis.  For example, it is not uncommon for a company to use a staffing company to provide a welder when one is needed. Continue reading

Longfellow Bridge, named after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (author of the famous poem “The Bridge” which once stood in the place of the current bridge) spans the Charles River.  It connects Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood to Kendall Square in Cambridge. The historic bridge, which is adorned by sculptures of Viking Ships, carries the Route 3 roadway, the MBTA or “T” Redline trains, as well as decks for pedestrians and bicycle traffic.

bridge-and-buildings-1188634Unfortunately, the bridge has fallen into a state of disrepair over the years and is now undergoing a major renovation product.  According to a recent news article from the Boston Globe, one of the construction workers on the project was just injured on the job.  The accident occurred around 7 a.m.  When Boston Fire Department (BFD) rescue workers arrived on the scene, they were told that the injured employee was lying underneath the bridge on a portion of the span that was still over land. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from the Boston Globe, an operator on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Red Line Mattapan Trolley in Dorchester was driving the trolley car when a man wearing a Michael Myers mask viciously attacked him.hand

For those who are not familiar with the mask, it was a rubber mask that covers the wearer’s entire face and also has rubber hair.  It is named after the eponymous character that served as the bad guy in the popular “Halloween” horror movie franchise. Continue reading

Whenever a worker is killed on the job, the employer is required to notify the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within eight hours, so the agency can conduct a full investigation into the cause of the worker’s death.  If the worker was found to have died as a result of a safety violation, the agency can assess fines against the employer.  If there was something that could have been done in a safer manner, but it was a not a regulatory violation, they can make recommendations and work to change the regulations in the future.

nitrogenIf the agency finds other safety violations, the agency can issue warnings and fines, even if those violations did not result in the death of the worker.  In addition to when a worker is killed, OSHA must be notified within 24 hours of a serious workplace accident that results in an amputation, hospitalization, or loss of vision in at least one eye.  This is also so OSHA can conduct a full investigation into the cause of the accident. Continue reading

The U.S. Department of Labor recently reached an agreement with U.S. Steel Corp. in which the company agrees to drop its policy of mandating workers immediately report injuries or illnesses or else face swift and severe punishment. whistle1

The problem was not so much that the company required workers to report injuries. In fact, that’s what OSHA wants. The issue was the back-handed policy’s negative effect on workers who might not have realized the severity of their condition right away.

That meant that any worker who didn’t report a workplace injury the moment it happened faced retaliation – up to and including termination – for reporting it later. That created an incentive not to report the injury at all, which is exactly what federal regulators do not want. Punishing workers who report injuries is a violation of whistleblower statutes.  Continue reading

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