Prevention of workplace injuries is very important to employers, employees and the public at large. If a worker gets hurt or a worker is killed on the job, the employee and his family suffer tremendous loss. Employers also experience financial harm, in the form of workers’ compensation injury claims and loss of productivity, as well as fines from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration if the fatality or injury was caused by a violation of workplace safety rules.
Prevention of workplace injuries should be a top priority for everyone, but workplace injury prevention costs money and it can be complicated. With the goal of saving lives and saving taxpayer dollars, New York State has announced it is going to be giving out monetary grants with the aim of preventing on-the-job accidents. According to WXXI News, around $5 million in grants is going to be provided for workplace injury prevention.
These grants can hopefully help to reduce injury rates, but unfortunately the grants that are given are likely not going to be enough to make a significant reduction in the substantial number of injuries and deaths among workers in New York which occur every year. When injuries and fatalities happen on-the-job, workers need to know what their rights are. A New York workers’ compensation law firm can provide help to those who have been harmed and who are seeking work injury benefits.
Grants Aim to Help Prevent Work Injuries
According to WXXI News, the grants that are going to be provided by the state are intended to be used for the improvement of safety conditions and the prevention of injuries in “low-wage industries.” The government has made clear that the grants will be provided to not-for-profit organizations so those organizations can put the money to work helping to improve conditions in some of the state’s highest-risk industries. The focus will be on industries where there are higher-than-average rates of worker injury or fatalities. Often, these industries employ large numbers of immigrant workers.
The targeted industries which are to receive help from nonprofits that are provided with grant money include the construction industry, where there has been a troubling rise in injuries and deaths in New York City due to the uptick in development in recent years. Other fields include hospitality, landscaping, agriculture, and dry cleaning. The grant program was announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo after a New York City Labor Day parade this year.
If the grants can make conditions safer, hopefully fewer employers and employees will have to pay the price for on-the-job injuries. Studies estimate as much as $10 billion a year is lost in New York State alone in the form of workers comp payments, medical expenditures, and loss of productivity due to work injuries. Even small steps in the right direction could help to bring these huge cost down.
Employees are not the ones who should face financial loss if and when injuries or on-the-job death occurs. Rosenberg, Minc, Falkoff & Wolff should be consulted by the victims of work injuries as soon as possible to get help recovering damages.
