Rise in NYC Construction Worker Deaths Disproportionately Affecting Immigrants
Date Posted: November 30, 2015
Posted In: Ideas, News,
From ConstructionDIVE: Construction worker deaths are on the rise in New York City, and in a review of every construction fatality in the last two years, an in-depth New York Times investigation found that safety measures were inadequate on many of the construction sites where deaths occurred and that immigrants represented a disproportionate percentage of those killed.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, seven workers have died on New York City construction sites since July — three of them during the nine-day period before Labor Day. From July 2014 to July 2015, there were 10 construction-site fatalities, but the annual average over the previous four years was 5.5. In addition to worker deaths, 324 were injured from July 2014 to July 2015, an increase of 53%, and the New York Department of Buildings recorded 314 accidents, an increase of 52% — more than twice the accidents the city recorded in 2011.
However, permits for new construction projects, went up only 11% in the same time period, and permits for renovation and other work went up only 6%.