80 work fatalities in state last year

Stiffer penalties sought for firms

Eighty workers died in Massachusetts on the job or from work-related illness last year, the most since 2003, according to a report yesterday urging tougher penalties for putting employees at risk.

Construction remained the most dangerous industry, with 20 deaths last year, including a carpenter who plunged 48 feet down an elevator shaft in Woburn. In other high-risk cases, nine firefighters died across the state, most from illness, and a Verizon employee was electrocuted in Plymouth when his bucket collided with high-voltage wires.

Yesterday, advocates for workers called on federal officials to increase fines for worker deaths and urged state officials to increase oversight, as well. Last year, Massachusetts companies paid an average of $5,383 in federal fines for each worker's death, a figure advocates said was inadequate.

"The penalties are frighteningly low," said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, a nonprofit worker safety organization that coauthored the report with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. "The fines are not enough to dissuade an employer from putting a worker at risk."

Labor leaders and advocates released the report to coincide with Workers' Memorial Day, amid conflicting national views on workplace safety.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who called the federal penalty system weak, will hold a hearing today in Washington on the issue. The Bush administration countered that worker fatality rates are at historic lows and praised federal enforcement.

In Massachusetts, labor unions and advocates will gather at the State House today to remember workers who died on the job or from work-related illnesses.

In addition to the building trades, the industries with the highest number of deaths were transportation, firefighting, utility work, fishing, and auto repair. Stress-related deaths remain a major concern: Six workers below retirement age suffered heart attacks after stressful events, including three firefighters, all age 38.

Advocates say that many of the deaths, if not all, might have been prevented if employers had made sure that workers had adequate safety gear and training. Nineteen of the 80 deaths resulted from falls, mostly in the construction industry, including Benedelso Ovalle of Lynn, a 17-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala. He was not wearing a safety harness when he plunged from the roof of a Salem church in August.

Ovalle was one of two 17-year-old construction workers who died last year. The oldest worker to die was a 71-year old mechanic.

Labor leaders raised concerns that some companies are putting productivity demands ahead of worker safety.

As an example, they singled out Verizon in the report. Earlier this month, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Verizon $13,500 for safety violations in the death of Gary Gibbons, 53, a splice service technician. He was electrocuted in October when his bucket hit high-voltage wires. Verizon is appealing the fines, said spokesman Phil Santoro.

The coalition and union officials said the buckets Gibbons and other workers use on the job are not insulated, which they said might have saved Gibbons.

Santoro confirmed that the buckets are not insulated. He said telecommunications workers follow different safety practices because they do not work with electricity. He said in an e-mail that safety and training is paramount at the company.

Advocates criticized OSHA for allowing companies to negotiate for lower fines. They also said the federal agency is understaffed.

"They just don't have enough money," Robert J. Haynes, president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said of the federal agency.

OSHA spokesman John Chavez acknowledged that companies may negotiate lower fines, but said the agency insists that the companies adopt higher safety standards.

"OSHA is not in the business of collecting fines," he said. "OSHA is in the business of making sure that employers live up to their legal obligation under the law to provide their employees with a safe and healthful workplace."

Labor leaders said they are pushing state lawmakers to increase standards, from giving more protection to temporary workers to extending the federal protection under OSHA to the state's 350,000 public-sector workers.

Such oversight might have prevented a teacher's aide and a student at an unnamed vocational high school from suffering burns last year when a highly flammable gas exploded, the advocates said.

State labor officials echoed concerns about OSHA's budget and said they are trying to compensate by issuing grants to increase workplace safety.

The state has also launched task forces to probe employers who pay workers off the books and to consider extending OSHA protections to public sector workers.

"The state is trying to pick up some of the slack," said Suzanne M. Bump, secretary of labor and workforce development. "It is definitely a concern to see more workers losing their lives on the job or as a result of their jobs."

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.

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