ConDig (26-Apr-17). New York City Council has green lighted a sweeping new construction safety bill that will require the contractors to publish a full list of deaths and injuries on sites.
Under the bill, contractors will have now have to report details including the type of injury occurred on site, how long the worker has been on the job and whether they were unionized. Companies that fail to report deaths could be hit with fines up to $25,000.
Current regulations stipulate that only deaths that involved violations of the city’s construction code are counted. But the new legislation will now require that the building’s agency will be required to report on construction deaths whether they involve a city code violation or not.
“If New York City is going to prevent another 33 construction worker fatalities over the next two years, we need to make sure that the Buildings Department is communicating with OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] about violations that could jeopardize worker safety,” said Council Member Rory Lancman.
A total of six bills in the package were approved, including a new law that requires buildings under construction that are more than four stories in height retain a construction superintendent. They must also have a safety plan for that particular project, with the plan made available to all workers on site.
Another bill requires all mobile cranes to be equipped with a GPS or similar device in order to transmit the location of cranes to the Department of Buildings and all cranes are required to be fitted with a recording device to collect information.
All hoisting machine operators are also required to have a license rating in order to operate certain large cranes.
Despite the wide-ranging reform package approved by the city, some of the most controversial parts of the proposed package were emitted.
For example, a requirement for workers to go through apprenticeship programs was left out after unions and construction companies locked horns during negotiations.
“All around New York City, construction workers risk their lives on projects that grow bigger by the day,” said City Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.
“Unsafe sites represent an unnecessary danger for the men and women working to complete our newest structures, and implementing safety protections is an important step in better respecting the physical sacrifices they make in order to keep building. This package of legislation will go far in preventing the likelihood of future accidents, and will keep contractors and other monitors accountable for the protection of their workers.”