Work-related deaths rise in Massachusetts

April 28, 2008 05:44 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff

Eighty workers died in Massachusetts last year on the job or from work-related causes, the highest number since 2003, according to a report released today. The findings triggered calls for the federal government to impose tougher penalties on companies that put workers at risk.

Construction remained the most dangerous industry, with 20 worker deaths last year. They included a 28-year-old carpenter who plunged 48 feet down an elevator shaft in Woburn that had been covered with an unmarked board. In other high-risk cases, nine firefighters died across the state, most from illness, and a 53-year-old Verizon employee died in Plymouth when his bucket collided with high-voltage wires.

Labor leaders called on federal officials today to increase fines for worker deaths, and urged Massachusetts authorities to increase oversight, as well. Last year, companies paid an average of $5,383 for a worker's death, which advocates said is far too low to deter employers from breaking the law.

"The penalties are frighteningly low," said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, a labor advocacy and training group that co-authored 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 analysis nationally on workplace safety. Senator Edward Kennedy, who called federal workplace oversight weak, will hold a hearing Tuesday in Washington on the matter.

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 on Tuesday to remember workers who died on the job, or from work-related illnesses.