Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog

A wide range of government leaders, investors, religious organizations and worker safety advocates are urging action from large clothing manufacturers such as Walmart, Gap and Benetton if more isn’t done to bolster working conditions in garment factories overseas.

Our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers know that the outrage stems from the collapse of an eight-story factory building, where clothing destined for the U.S. was being manufactured. The death toll has reached well over 1,000 at this point, with the dramatic and heart-wrenching rescue of one woman 17 days after the tragedy making headlines worldwide.

While many here in the U.S. see worker advocacy as something that is not always a high priority, situations like this should give us all pause. This is the kind of thing that can happen when we place our trust in corporations to prioritize worker safety.

Yes, this happened in a foreign country, but they are U.S. companies that clearly know better. They are held to a different standard for their workers in the U.S. – which is precisely why they seek to set up operations in foreign countries, where the workplace safety requirements are far more lax and expenses are therefore much cheaper. In the end, as in so many other workplace tragedies, we see once again that greed trumps safety.

It’s encouraging to see that nearly 1 million signatures have already been collected on a petition urging Gap and H&M to sign commitments to improve fire safety plans in other Bangladesh factories. Additionally, religious groups controlling some $100 billion in assets have collectively penned a letter expressing displeasure with U.S. retailers on this front.

There are nearly 3 million garment workers employed by U.S. companies in Bangladesh, and not nearly enough is being done to protect them. The government of Bangladesh is being accused of working together with these large corporations to suppress labor unions, curb worker rights and diminish safety standards.

The country has the lowest minimum wage in the world, at $37 monthly.

We wish it hadn’t taken such a significant loss of life to gain the attention of the international community on this issue. Up until now, the primary voice of advocacy had come from non-governmental organizations, who hold little power in the marketplace.

The incident occurred just two months after a fire in another Bangladesh factory killed 112 workers.

At the same time, it highlights the importance of prioritizing and investing in worker safety standards and rights domestically.

In Massachusetts last year, 32 workers were killed on the job. Another 320 passed away from an occupational disease. Another 1,800 were diagnosed with an occupational disease and 50,000 more sere seriously injured.

If we think a tragedy like Bangladesh is too distant, let us not forget the recent fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, the oil rig blasts off the Gulf of Mexico and the mine deaths in West Virginia.

We should do better. We can do better.
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When the weather gets warm, there is one thing you can count on: construction. Construction workers hit the roads in the spring and summer to make needed improvements and repairs to private and commercial properties, as well as to improve infrastructure in Boston and throughout the United States. Construction work on government roads, private buildings and commercial establishments and the amount of work being done significantly increases right along with the temperature.

Our Boston construction accident lawyers know that these workers put their lives at risk on a daily basis. Roadside construction sites are dangerous, as are any construction zones. Several accidents have already occurred this year, leaving construction workers dead with grieving family members left behind. In light of these accidents, it is very important for construction workers and for employers to take a few minutes to think about the risks of construction work and about the ways to minimize those risks.

Construction Accidents
Construction accidents happen every day. In fact, just recently, the Boston Herald reported that a Connecticut worker was killed when working on a Massachusetts Transportation Department facility located in North Hampton.

The victim who was killed was a 56-year-old man. He became pinned in between two modular office units that he and other workers were in the process of constructing. The temporary buildings were being put together when one of the units shifted, pinning the victim. Tragically, the man who was killed left behind a wife and three children. One other worker was also injured due to the building shift and was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

This accident occurred within days of a Boston construction worker losing his life in a New York accident. In that case, WCVB reported that the Boston worker was working on a construction site in upstate New York. He became pinned under a 40-foot-pipe that dislodged as it was being unloaded from a flatbed tractor-trailer. The pipe weight 1,7000 pounds and crushed the 24-year-old worker who had been guiding the pipe using a guide rope as it was lifted by a steel-cabled excavator.

Staying Safe
Both of these tragic accidents involved a loss of life due to workers being crushed. Unfortunately, crushing accidents are not the only ones likely to occur in work zones as more people complete construction trough the warmer summer weather. Ultimately, the only way that any worker will be safer from being crushed or otherwise injured will be to ensure that working conditions are as safe as possible.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducts periodic inspections of worksites. Unfortunately, OSHA cannot be everywhere all the time and employers need to step up and do the right thing. Providing appropriate safety gear; ensuring workers are adequately trained; and complying with all OSHA regulations can help to save lives.
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Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys have been closely following the developments surrounding the introduction of the Protecting America’s Workers Act, would would provide a much-needed update to the Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970.

The Center for Public Integrity, which has been thorough in its ongoing series on the gaps of workplace safety oversight and protections, reports that perhaps the most substantial part of this legislation is that it would increase the enforcement power of the Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

So for example, let’s say a company that is involved in a willful violation – that is, one in which its superiors knew or should have known the dangers – and that violation leads to a death. As it stands right now, the employer could face a misdemeanor charge that would result in a maximum six months in prison. In the state of Massachusetts, you would face more jail time for illegally betting on a horse than you would for violating a safety law that results in a worker’s death.

This federal bill, if passed, would change that.

Instead of a misdemeanor, this kind of violation would be a felony, which would be punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The other thing this bill would do is increase civil penalties. That’s something that hasn’t been done in nearly 25 years. This is important because the fine schedule hasn’t kept pace with inflation.

A serious workplace safety violation, which is one that would most likely result in serious physical harm or death, is punishable by a civil fine of up to $7,000. What the Protecting America’s Workers Act would do would be to raise that to $12,000, which would essentially just put it in line with inflation costs.

Same thing for repeat or willful violations, which right now carry a maximum fine of $70,000. That amount would be bumped up to $120,000.

Employers would still have to correct workplace dangers uncovered by federal inspectors – even if they were in the process of formally contesting the citation. Right now, that negotiation process can take years, and that means the upper hand lies with the employer. OSHA is eager to keep workers safe and the employer is just trying to bargain down the liability. OSHA usually ends up settling for costs much lower than the initial fine, simply so that the employer will move ahead with addressing the hazard.

And finally, another major thing this bill would do would be to require companies to protect ALL workers on a work site, rather than solely those that are directly employed by the firm. Hopefully, this will help to address the issue that contractor injuries, some of the most common on job sites, aren’t actually recorded or logged by the primary company doing the work. In the end, neither the government nor the public gets a clear picture of whether these workplaces are safe because, half the time, incidents that happen on site aren’t reported because the injury involved a contract worker.
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The director of the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, David Michaels said he would be the “first to admit” that the system currently in place to protect workers from air quality issues on the job is effectively broken.

On the one hand, our Boston workers’ compensation lawyers find it a bit refreshing to hear some honesty regarding some of the deplorable conditions that continue to exist for American employees, despite all of the funding we spend on regulation. On the other hand, this confession is deeply troubling because it means that clearly, more needs to be done to protect workers from the kinds of hazards that are posing substantial risk.

A recent story by The New York Times reveals that when it comes to workplace air quality standards, our business sector’s track record is abysmal.

Part of the reason is that it’s considered a long-term threat. It’s generally less dramatic in that the effects of such ailments take years to manifest. Most of the money OSHA spends is funneled into a quick response effort regarding dangers that are in the present, even though those slow, silent killers – asbestos, glue fumes, arsenic and lead – claim far more lives.

The agency has penned workplace safety standards for a total of 16 dangerous substances and chemicals used regularly in workplaces. But we must consider that there are literally tens of thousands of dangerous substances that workers in this country handle each and every day. Who is policing that? Usually, the employers.

When that happens, there will almost inevitably be lapses in oversight and efforts to undercut safety measures in favor of bottom line profits.

A clear-cut example of this are numerous workplaces and plants that use a dangerous chemical called nPB, or n-propyl bromide. Tens of thousands of workers in manufacturing industries such as high-tech electronics, dry cleaning and auto body have come in contact with this chemical. What’s especially troubling is that even though chemical companies and government officials have warned that long-term exposure to nPB has the propensity to cause infertility and neurological damage, companies aren’t doing enough to shield workers from these hazards. In fact, use of this substance has gone up by more than 15 times what it was just six years ago.

In the case of a furniture manufacturer in North Carolina, the chemical was used in spray gluing guns. Ventilation was reportedly poor. Yet even when workers began to fall ill, and even after federal officials determined that the levels of nPB exposure weren’t safe, the company allegedly failed to provide respirators and fans meant to vent fumes were still turned off, to save on electricity costs.

The company has said that alternatives to nPB aren’t any safer and in some cases, are more dangerous.

Toxic air on the job is accountable for a host of chronic ailments that affect some 200,000 workers in the U.S. every year. Those include mesothelioma, stonecutter’s disease, asbestosis, black lung, pneumoconiosis and grinder’s rot.

To put this into perspective, about 40,000 people in this country every year die before their time because of their exposure to dangerous substances at work. That is 10 times the number of workers who die in mine collapses or refinery explosions or other similar instances that garner far more public attention.
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