Safety training and education can reduce workplace injuries

Roofing contractors are involved in both new construction, repairs and renovations in New York City. Safety-conscious companies report that workplace injuries and workers’ compensation claims are reduced by a policy of safety training and continuing education for roofing workers. Statistics show that the two biggest areas of injuries and claims are falls and heat illnesses.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that falls accounted for over one-third of all construction deaths in 2015. With that in mind, one fast-growing nationwide roofing contractor, Nations Roof, claims to have established a strong risk management program that stresses safety training for its workers. The company has daily safety inspections at each work site.

The company and other companies throughout the country have joined to provide an eight-hour Fall Protection A-Z Program that takes workers through the fundamentals of fall protection and applies current OSHA state plan requirements. The program includes hands-on equipment training and the teaching of self-rescue techniques. In addition, the company and other safety-conscious roofers stress numerous other continuing education programs, including those provided through OSHA.

The safety-awareness training in these companies reportedly applies to management as well as the roofing workers. Nations Roof reports to have created a program for older roofing employees who have more difficulty completing common tasks. It says that it places them in roles with less exposure to injury. Despite what appears to be good motives behind these efforts, workers always must beware of employer attempts to reduce workers’ compensation claims at the expense of the worker and his job.

In New York City, some contractors may institute discriminatory programs that tend to push older workers out the door or reduce their hours and/or earnings where they suffer workplace injuries. Where that happens, the worker must act to protect his or her rights assertively and quickly. The strongest way to do that is to obtain a free consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney.  

Source: propertycasualty360.com, “Nations Roof: Workers’ comp reaches a new level“, Caterina Pontoriero, Aug. 9, 2017

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