By Bill Parry
Mayor Bill de Blasio signed a new law Monday mandating that New York City construction workers complete at least 40 to 55 hours of construction site safety training by March 1. The bill, known as Intro. 1447-C, was passed by a unanimous 42-0 vote in the City Council.
“New York City is built on the ideals that every single person deserves a city with clean air to breathe, a city whose government works efficiently on behalf of its residents, and of course, a city whose hardworking construction workers will get the safety training they need,” de Blasio said. “For the hard-hats in one of our city’s most dangerous jobs, this bill will help get them home to their families at night and keep the general public safe around construction sites.”
The law is in response to the more than 18 percent increase in injuries on the city’s construction sites in 2017, from 526 to 622. This year alone, eight construction workers have died on construction sites, and there have been 39 deaths since 2014. The most recent was Juan Chonillo, a 44-year-old father of five children from Corona, who died in a 29-story fall in Lower Manhattan last month.
“It’s just not acceptable to lose a life when you could save that life,” de Blasio said. “It’s heartbreaking, it’s painful, it leaves a horrible reality for a family left behind. And too often these work sites were not managed they way they should have been — bluntly, in the name of greed.”
The Real Estate Board of New York and other groups opposed the bill, saying it would favor union labor over non-union workers because the unions typically pay for their members’ safety training, whereas the new law will make non-union workers find and pay for their own courses. But the legislation enjoyed broad support from organized labor.
“Today’s historic bill signing represents the next chapter in the progressive fight for safer workplaces and their surrounding areas,” Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York President Gary LaBarbera said. “This law is a significant step in the right direction for improving worker and public safety alike and standardizing rigorous training in New York City. We look forward to working closely with the city and the real estate community to ensure the safest conditions for the public and all workers who build our great city each and every day.”
In all, the mayor signed a dozen measures Monday, including Intro. 1292-A, which requires all city agencies to accept electronic invoices.
“We must look at all the ways our city can eliminate waste as we work to become greener,” City Councilman Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria) said. “The paper we generate from vendors’ invoices, receipts, and other vouchers is wasteful and unnecessary. INT. 1292 requires that all agencies accept these documents electronically which will waste less paper, streamline business interactions, and save trees.”
Constantinides is chairman of the Council’s Environmental Protection Commission.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
