Archinect - News

NYC construction worker fatalities are now at record lows

2024-05-07T17:17:00-04:00

New York City construction worker fatalities have declined to record lows, according to a new report released by the NYC Department of Buildings. Construction-related deaths are now at their lowest point in the past decade despite an increase in injuries at job sites for the third consecutive year, the reporting showed. Injuries requiring investigatory actions increased by 17%, while the leading cause of death continued to be accidental falls as construction activity has largely remained unchanged in each of the five boroughs.

The report includes statistics about the number of new building permit issuances and an increase in the number of new housing units completed between 2020 and the end of last year. The DOB’s full findings can be viewed here.

President Biden lays out workplace heat safety plan to protect workers

2023-07-31T17:06:00-04:00

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to increase protections for workers facing extreme heat, as temperatures across the U.S. soar and large swaths of the country face heat advisories.

The President’s announcement comes as close to 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. The country currently has no federal standards on workplace heat safety, and there has been no timeline for the finalization of one. As reported by HR Dive, heat has become the number one cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.

Previously on Archinect: Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

Biden directed the U.S. Department of Labor to issue hazard alerts notifying employers and employees about ways to stay protected from extreme heat. The Department will also increase its inspections of at-risk workplaces such as farms and construction sites and heighten its enforcement of heat safety violations. The Biden administration aims to invest $7 million to develop more accurate weather predictions and $152 million to improve drinking water infrastructure in California, C...

Lack of heat standards for construction workers increases safety risks as temperatures reach record-breaking levels

2023-07-20T15:01:00-04:00

With record-high temperatures impacting millions around the world, a spotlight has been cast on the workplace conditions of construction workers, who currently aren’t protected by any strict standard regarding extreme heat. According to a heat tracker by The New York Times, approximately 27% of the U.S. population live in areas where heat levels could reach dangerous levels this week. This comes following the world’s hottest week on record during the first week of July. According to Gary Orr, a health scientist with OSHA, there is no timeline for the finalization of a heat standard.

As reported by Zachary Phillips of Construction Dive, OSHA conducted 1,827 federal heat inspections between April 2022 and June 20, 2023, with 47% of them being in construction. Many of the inspections were not programmed, with 567 occurring due to complaints and 58 due to fatality or catastrophe. "For construction workers, the sweltering conditions mean an additional jobsite hazard. But there is no enfo...

'Lunch atop a skyscraper' reflects how far construction safety standards have come

2023-07-05T14:49:00-04:00

Eleven men perch precariously on a metal beam, eating lunch, lighting cigarettes or drinking from glass bottles. Wearing only cloth caps as head protection, the men dwarf the hazy background of 1930s New York City and Central Park. Much has changed since workers building the 66-story, 850-foot-tall Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan posed for “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” in 1932, but it remains construction’s most iconic photograph.

The photograph, which was originally displayed in the New York Herald Tribune on October 2, 1932, was and continues to be a positive and widely admired American symbol. However, when examining what’s being depicted, it is undeniable that there is an array of problematic safety violations present, including a lack of proper footwear, personal protective equipment, and fall protection. It reflects how far safety standards have come from a time when they were nonexistent, and workplace fatalities were expected.

Previously on Archinect: Construction fatalities in New York City have reached a three-year high

As noted by Construction Dive, with today’s OSHA standards, the scene depicted in the photo could result in initial fines of approximately $155,000 per person. The photo also symbolizes the ongoing fight for continued worker protection. Construction still remains one of the deadliest industries in the U.S, with slips, trips, and falls among the most deadly hazards. Latino workers als...

Immigrant women detail a 'completely different world' on construction sites in NYC

2023-06-28T11:15:00-04:00

[C]onstruction is a risky job, and even more so for undocumented immigrants, who often work under informal verbal agreements. And for women, being vastly outnumbered on every construction site means more pressure to accept lower pay and mistreatment. That’s why, as more immigrant women don hard hats in New York City, advocates are training them to stand up against exploitation – and transform the construction industry itself.

More than half of New York City’s 200,000-plus-strong construction workforce are immigrants. Myriad abuses abound in informal labor markets, adding to a dangerous climate that last year saw fatalities reach a three-year high.

The women featured in the Guardian article also detailed a culture of sexual discrimination where gender norms are often a reluctant means to financial stability. As one worker stated, “Because we’re women, we are constantly being devalued in these jobs.”

Construction fatalities in New York City have reached a three-year high

2023-04-14T10:00:00-04:00

A new report from the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) has shown an alarming increase in construction worker fatalities in the city for 2022.

A total of 11 deaths were recorded for the year, up from 9 the previous year and the 8 that were recorded in 2020. A total of 9 fatal accidents were the result of falls, which injured another 200 workers. Brooklyn led all five boroughs with 6 fatalities, while Manhattan led the tally of injuries at 255.

The DOB says an increase in building activity citywide is at least partially to blame.

This comes a year after the agency enacted a program of “zero tolerance” safety sweeps resulting in stop-work orders at nearly 1,500 construction sites throughout New York City. The year 2022 had a recorded decline in those orders. The report also cited the impacts of better safety equipment for workers and the increased emphasis on safety education practices.

2021 was an increasingly deadly year for construction workers in New York

2023-02-24T14:24:00-05:00

In 2021, 12.1 per 100,000 construction workers in New York state died on the job, a 9% increase from 11.1 the year before, according to a new report from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. The total number of workers who died in the state increased to 61 in 2021, up from 41 in 2020, reported NYCOSH, a membership organization that represents workers, unions and health and safety professionals.

The Committee also found that one-quarter of all workplace fatalities across New York state took place on construction sites, a repeat of the figure contained in the Deadly Skyline Report for 2020. Latino workers accounted for 25.5% of the deaths recorded, keeping pace with a larger grisly national trend. Overall, an average of 53.6 workers have died on job sites each year in New York over the past decade.

The NYC Department of Buildings had the same year enacted “zero tolerance” safety sweeps resulting in nearly 1,500 stop-work orders. The reform efforts were added to recently in the form of the new Carlos’ Law, which will increase the financial penalties on employers in negligent death cases from $10,000 to $500,000 (to a maximum of $1 million). In New York City alone, where 20 workers died, some 89% of construction sites had some form of safety issue, according to a ...

Construction still ranks as one of the deadliest industries in the U.S., according to new survey

2022-12-21T16:24:00-05:00

Construction workers died at a rate of 9.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2021, the BLS reported, down from 10.1 in 2020. That rate has hovered in that threshold for at least a decade. The new per capita figures are the lowest since 2011, but still don’t break the trend. Worker death rate across all industries was 3.6 per 100,000, the highest since 2016.

Among the demographics, immigrant Hispanic & Latino workers were almost twice as likely to die than their U.S.-born counterparts, highlighting an underreported problem nationwide. Slips, trips, and falls were among the most commonly-recorded causes of death, followed by transportation accidents, exposure to toxic substances, and fatal contact with equipment. This comes after news that construction site staffing has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“There is a temptation to see a decline in the fatality numbers as something to celebrate. It isn’t,” Brian Turmail of the Associated General Contractors of America told Construction Dive bluntly. “There is nothing acceptable about nearly 1,000 people losing their lives in our industry.”

An open letter to LA's next mayor outlines 10 proposals to speed up the production of affordable housing

2022-09-30T13:20:00-04:00

The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|LA) has released an open letter to mayoral candidates Rick Caruso and Karen Bass suggesting 10 fixes to zoning requirements and the approval processes that would positively impact citywide efforts to tackle an ongoing housing crisis that has taken center stage ahead of the November election.

Echoing the tone of a recent LA Times op-ed, Koning Eizenberg principal and AIA|LA Government Outreach Committee member Brian Lane wrote on behalf of the organization, saying that, as the system is currently arranged, there are "a thousand ways to 'no.'" Their letter claims that city bureaucracy gets in the way of the design community's efforts and that production can be significantly increased via the proposed set of solutions.

"Dear Mayor," the text begins. "It takes about $600,000 and 5 years to build one affordable housing unit. That’s one person or family moved off the streets of over 69,000 experiencing homelessness in LA...

New report highlights inadequate oversight of building construction sites by the NYC Department of Buildings

2022-09-14T10:00:00-04:00

According to a new report by the New York State Comptroller’s Office, 89% of the visited active construction sites across New York City had safety issues, highlighting the need for the improvement of the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) oversight of construction sites.

Between June 10, 2021 and August 31, 2021, officials from the New York State Comptroller visited 43 construction sites in all five boroughs of New York City. Eighteen of these sites were actively under construction at the time of the visits, and 16 of the 18 sites had a total of 77 safety issues. They included not having a site safety manager; missing or incomplete site safety logs and daily inspection records; and no documentation of workers completing required site safety training or attending mandatory safety meetings.

Previously on Archinect: NYC Department of Buildings shuts down 322 construction sites in 'zero-tolerance' safety sweep

Additionally, the report found that DOB did not issue violations for ...

An adaptive-reuse project in the Bronx has become New York's most notorious construction site

2022-06-07T09:00:00-04:00

This site, where an old building is being transformed into a charter school, has just distinguished itself from the 40,000 other major construction projects in New York City by having its third worker fatality in less than three years. No other construction site in New York City has had this many separate fatal incidents since at least 2003, when the Department of Buildings began keeping electronic records. But despite the pattern of deaths, the consequences have been negligible.

In full view of the Major Deegan Expressway, 20 Bruckner Boulevard, known throughout the New York area as the site of the iconic former History Channel (and later iHeartRadio) billboard, was once the ice storehouse of a former Yankees owner and is now being transformed into a charter school by developer Maddd Equities, who has had a scant $28,000 in fines levied against them in the past years despite the record-high fatalities.

Being a construction worker is one of the most lethal occupations in New York City, with rates of injury and death rising ahead of the pandemic before falling slightly owing to the economic downturn. Most of the men profiled in the Times are nonunion immigrant laborers working for $120-per-day to start, with some being recruited from homeless shelters to meet demands. An OSHA investigation revealed that some deaths were not properly reported for weeks.

Previously on Archinect: Nearly 1 in 4 workplace deaths in New York occur in construction

Multiple stop-work...

Nearly 1 in 4 workplace deaths in New York occur in construction

2022-02-23T15:18:00-05:00

Construction work in New York — city and statewide — remains the most deadly profession in the country. A total of 41 laborers died on the job in New York state in 2020, a decrease from 2019. However, fewer workers climbed scaffolding and pounded nails during the pandemic, so the rate of deaths still rose.

According to an analysis of data from the New York Department of Buildings, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted by the labor group New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), workplace deaths in construction accounted for 24% of on-the-job fatalities in New York, compared to 21% nationwide.

Previously on Archinect: NYC Department of Buildings' 'zero tolerance' safety sweeps have resulted in 1,499 stop-work orders

Latino construction workers are disproportionately impacted, accounting for 18% of fatalities, yet only 10% of the population. In addition, nearly 80% of worker deaths were on non-union job sites. The NYCOSH has called on lawmakers to expand regulations that hold contractors liable for endangering workers.

Construction workers are battling the heat in unexpected regions

2021-07-24T09:00:00-04:00

Late last month, however, the Pacific Northwest saw the temperature skyrocket and break multiple records. The thermometer soared to 115 in Portland and 108 in Seattle. The heatwave caused up to 100 deaths in Oregon [...]. The usual regional temperature in June is in the high 80s. For outdoor construction work, the heat posed an unusual challenge in the region.

The potential for disruptions due to extreme weather comes as the industry was beginning to pull away from materials shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Oregon has joined several other states in adopting protective labor laws. An updated OSHA protection rule is expected soon.

Construction Drive has more on the industry's response attempts to beat the heat here.

Workplace protections falter as climate change makes outdoor work more hazardous

2020-01-23T12:30:00-05:00

In 2018, 60 workers died due to temperature extremes, according to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data on workplace fatalities. Though the climate crisis is creating conditions where workers are facing hotter temperatures on a more frequent basis, there are no federal safety protections for workers in extreme temperatures, and only three states, California, Washington and Minnesota, have heat stress workplace protection standards.

The Guardian's Michael Sainato takes a look at the increasingly dangerous nature of outdoor work as climate change makes extreme heat a greater danger for people who labor outside.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 783 workers in the United States died and more than 69,000 workers were injured due to heat exposure while on the job between 1992 and 2016, though the actual figures are likely higher due under-reporting.

According to Sainato's report, federal oversight over workplace safety, especially for outdoor workers, has decreased sharply under the administration of President Donald Trump despite the fact that global temperatures are going up and the number of "dangerous heat days" is expected to double over the next 30 years.