{"id":15351,"date":"2014-07-09T19:39:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T23:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2014\/07\/keeping-scaffold-law-protects-workers.html"},"modified":"2014-07-09T19:39:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T23:39:13","slug":"keeping-scaffold-law-protects-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2014\/07\/keeping-scaffold-law-protects-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"My Turn: Keeping Scaffold Law Protects Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"joan\n<\/div>\n
Joan Shirikian-Hesselton, Northeast Coalition on Occupational Health & Safety\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

BY JOAN SHIRIKIAN-HESSELTON<\/p>\n

For another year, Albany has passed on
\n‘reforming’ the Scaffold Safety Law. And
\nthat’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

Few debates in Albany are as misleading
\nas the one surrounding this critical
\nworker safety protection for New York construction
\nworkers. Construction remains
\none of the most dangerous jobs in the
\nnation, especially for Latino and immigrant
\nworkers. In New York alone, there were 101
\nfatal construction accidents from 2009 to
\n2011. Many more were injured, often in debilitating
\nfashion. And with so much new
\nconstruction underway throughout the
\nstate, it seems like the news reports nearly
\nevery week on another tragic accident.
\nBut New York construction workers have
\nan important but oft-misunderstood protection
\non their side: the Scaffold Safety
\nLaw.<\/p>\n

The law’s premise is simple: that the
\npeople who control construction worksite
\noperations, general contractors and property
\nowners, are responsible for ensuring
\nbasic safety rules for working at elevation
\nare followed on their worksites. If they fail to do so, and a worker is
\ninjured or killed as a result, they’re held
\nliable. If, however, they follow the rules,
\nthey won’t be held liable.<\/p>\n

This law has been a powerful incentive
\nfor safety in a dangerous industry. And
\ndespite the huge amount of construction
\nhere, New York actually can claim the nation’s
\nfifth-lowest injury rate, thanks in part
\nto the Scaffold Safety Law.<\/p>\n

Yet the construction industry has been
\nwaging war on it for years, claiming it’s too
\nexpensive to ensure workers are safe. They
\nargue (falsely) that New York is the only
\nstate with such a law, when in fact many
\nother states have stronger safety standards
\n(some states even have criminal penalties
\nfor breaking safety rules).<\/p>\n

They further argue the Law is single handedly
\nmaking construction far more
\nexpensive by driving up liability insurance
\ncosts, and therein slowing business
\ngrowth – despite the continued rise in new
\nconstruction across the state.<\/p>\n

This past year, they turned to academic
\nresearchers to try and bolster their case,
\nspending $82,800 to commission SUNY Albany’s
\nRockefeller Institute to study the
\nimpact of the Scaffold Safety Law.
\nRemember that old saying, you get what
\nyou pay for? Well in this case, that adage
\ncouldn’t be more appropriate.<\/p>\n

Our partners in New York City, the NY
\nCommittee on Occupational Safety &
\nHealth, and the Center for Popular Democracy
\nreleased a report detailing some
\nof the many flaws in the Rockefeller study,
\ndecrying in particular its “far-fetched” and
\n“counterintuitive” central claim: that the
\nlaw actually causes more accidents, not
\nless.<\/p>\n

As Richard W. Hurd, professor and associate
\ndean at the Cornell University School
\nof Industrial and Labor Relations noted in
\nthe Insurance Journal, “If employers are financially
\nliable for injury and death, would
\nthey not be more likely to invest in safety?”<\/p>\n

Since then, Rockefeller Institute Director
\nThomas Gais started backpedaling,
\neven going so far as to tell the Chronicle
\nof Higher Education that the research was
\n“just really awful” and deeming it not officially
\na research product of the Institute.<\/p>\n

The study is now the subject of multiple
\nFreedom of Information requests, including
\none seeking to discover what role the
\nlaw’s primary opponent – an industry backed
\nfront group – played in shaping
\nthis “research.” But none of this has stopped
\nthat same group from peddling the flawed
\nresearch around the state – including last
\nmonth in a column here in the Saratoga
\nBusiness Journal and Glen Falls Business
\nJournal.<\/p>\n

In general, opponents are fixated on the
\nhigh cost of liability insurance, arguing this
\nis purely the result of the Scaffold Safety
\nLaw – even though insurance rates have
\nbeen rising nationally, in states with and
\nwithout similar laws, for years.<\/p>\n

Nobody likes high insurance costs – us
\nincluded. That’s why we support a bill
\ndesigned to shed light on what’s really
\ndriving these liability insurance costs. That
\nbill would force insurers to open their
\nbooks to disclose actuarial data that can
\nbe properly evaluated – data that is not
\ncurrently available.<\/p>\n

With workers’ lives at stake, we believe it
\nis critical that policy makers looking at the
\nScaffold Safety Law have this information
\nbefore them. Yet opponents of the Scaffold
\nSafety Law, joined by the American Insurance
\nAssociation, are urging lawmakers
\nto reject this common-sense transparency
\nbill. Instead, these groups want our
\nlawmakers to move full steam ahead with
\ngutting the Scaffold Safety Law.<\/p>\n

Such a step would be wildly dangerous.<\/p>\n

That’s why the Albany Times-Union
\nrecently editorialized on this issue, urging
\nlawmakers to leave the law intact in the
\nabsence of any hard data.<\/p>\n

I urge our legislators: Don’t give in to the
\nindustry’s whim. Leave the Scaffold Safety
\nLaw alone. Do so, and you’ll help ensure the
\nsafety of our friends, family and neighbors.
\nAfter all, they’re the people who literally
\nbuild up our communities.<\/p>\n

Shirikian-Hesselton is secretary of the
\nNortheast New York Coalition on Occupational
\nSafety & Health.<\/p>\n

Photo Courtesy of Northeast Coalition on Occupational Health & Safety<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joan Shirikian-Hesselton, Northeast Coalition on Occupational Health & Safety BY JOAN SHIRIKIAN-HESSELTON For another year, Albany has passed on ‘reforming’ the Scaffold Safety Law. And that’s a good thing. 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