Updated Info: Dozens of injuries at World Trade Center construction site went unreported

[UglyGreed]

Last edited Tue Nov 4, 2014, 09:59 AM - Edit history (2)

A Daily News investigation found 34 serious accidents at WTC sites that were not reported to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. These incidents left workers with life-altering injuries such as spinal fractures, broken limbs and busted hips. And for three years in a row, injury rates at the WTC buildings exceeded state and national averages.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-dozens-injuries-wtc-site-unreported-article-1.1996945

[Brickbat]

1. Yep -- because OSHA regulations didn't require them to be reported.

The rules are changing January 1.

[hunter]

2. Too bad so many people are desperate for jobs.

A worker can usually tell what sort of employer they are working for, but without good unions and threatened by unemployment, an individual worker usually can't do anything about it.

There are employers who are very careful about safety. They document injuries carefully, educate their employees about proper safety procedures "on the clock" with full pay, and improve procedures whenever someone is injured. They carry excellent workers compensation insurance and help workers cope with their injuries and paperwork, offering them different jobs in the company if the injury excludes a worker from their previous job.

Then there are employers who document injuries carefully in case they are sued, their worker compensation insurance is minimal, and they don't change procedures if it costs less to simply force the injured employees out with some hard-sell and pathetic "settlement." They often blame the worker for their injury, don't tell other workers about the accident, and bury the injured worker in paperwork.

Worse, there are the entirely scummy employers who simply use even scummier labor contractors, or "independent" contractors, and create byzantine networks of business relationships to hide their responsibility. This is especially true in the agriculture, food processing, and "factory farm" meat industry which often hires undocumented workers because they are "disposable" and easily manipulated by threat of deportation. Sometimes the labor contractors are undocumented themselves and simply disappear whenever there is trouble.

The U.S.A. needs tougher labor laws, stronger unions, full protections for undocumented workers, and generous welfare and unemployment benefits. Anyone ought to be able to walk away from abusive and dangerous employers without fear of hunger, homelessness, loss of medical insurance, or deportation.

[UglyGreed]

3. That's funny

what you wrote because I lived it. When I was waiting to join the Carpenter's union (my father was a union carpenter and worked on the Twin Towers) I took a job with a local contractor and I hurt my back popping two discs. He would not give me his WC info and I needed to go to WC directly to apply a claim. I won't go into the problems I had to endure with their carrier CNA. It was not fun.

[UglyGreed]

4. EXCLUSIVE: World Trade Center contractors repeatedly covered up dangerous conditions

sometimes cleaning up possible evidence


http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-world-trade-center-contractors-repeatedly-covered-dangerous-conditions-article-1.1998281

The morning of Nov. 7, 2011, Brooklyn laborer Nick Giovinco fell 18 feet off a scaffold inside 3 World Trade Center, plummeting to the concrete.

His employer, Sorbara Construction Corp., blamed him, writing in an accident report, “Nick was climbing up the inside of shoring when he lost his grip and fell.”

But records tell a different tale: Multiple witnesses said the tower was shaky, it wasn’t braced, and there was no ladder as required. Workers said it tipped just as the worker got to the top.

Giovinco — who suffered two fractured ribs and four lower lumbar fractures, and required six staples in his back and head — sued the Port Authority and general contractor Tishman Construction. The suit is pending.