The police had been called to the site to investigate a fall.
A worker died Oct. 6 at a construction site on Sumner Street in East Boston near Maverick Square, where a multi-story residential structure is being built.
Boston Police Department detectives and Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigators are looking into the cause of the accident.
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that work injuries have been on the 
decline. The frequency of workers’ compensation claims has been decreasing over the past decade. Advances in technology, such as robotics and automation, have made workplaces safer.
However, one category of work injury—vehicle accidents—has been on the rise since 2011, according to a National Council on Compensation Insurance report.
You might be wondering what happened in 2011 that sparked such a trend.
When a Connecticut construction worker suffers serious injuries on a jobsite in Massachusetts, which state’s law applies to any ensuing litigation?
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently considered this issue.
The case focuses on workers’ compensation insurance. On July 6, 2020, a three-judge appeals court panel held had the construction worker filed a negligence suit in Massachusetts Superior Court against out-of-state contractors he blamed for his work injury, the worker would be able to sue under Massachusetts’ three-year statute of limitations, even though he lives in Connecticut.
The panel called the issue “straightforward.”
One lesson that can be learned from the court’s ruling is that lawsuits—especially ones that involve out-of-state parties and incidents—can be complicated. A skilled construction site injury attorney can analyze the specific facts of your case and advise as to where the case should be brought to achieve the best possible outcome. Continue reading
Massachusetts construction companies are focusing on the risks created by opioid use and addiction and the role these drugs play in work injuries.
The Massachusetts chapter of Associated General Contractors sponsored a statewide opioid awareness day on June 5, to draw attention to the impact the opioid crisis is having on the construction industry in New England. Workplace overdoses have increased by 25 percent each year for the last 5 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that unintentional overdose is now responsible for 5 percent of all workplace deaths, claiming nearly 300 lives each year.
Opioid addiction was declared a public health emergency in 2017, after the Centers for Disease Control reported opioid deaths surpassed motor-vehicle accidents as the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. However, construction workers face some of the highest risks. Construction workers are at six times greater risk that the average Massachusetts worker, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and now account for 25 percent of workplace opioid deaths. 
AGC has produced a manual to help contractors identify and mitigate the use of opioids at construction sites. Common signs include constricted or “pinpoint pupils,” falling asleep or losing consciousness, slow or shallow breathing, choking or gurgling sounds, blue or cold skin, and limp extremities.
Our Massachusetts workers’ compensation lawyers know many construction workers become addicted to painkillers while seeking legitimate treatment for work-related injuries. In some cases, a doctor or medical professional may have inappropriately prescribed potent narcotics for too long a period of time. In other cases, a medical professional may withhold or eliminate a patient’s access to pain medication, forcing injured or addicted workers to turn to street narcotics to manage the pain. Prescription opioids may include hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine, while illicit opioids most commonly include heroin and fentanyl.
The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a Boston construction company for allegedly retaliating against an injured worker by having him arrested by immigration authorities. Our Boston work injury attorneys know immigrants are among the most vulnerable members of the workforce. Often working dangerous jobs, for law pay, off the books with no benefits. We want you to know our laws offer both financial help and legal protection if you suffer injury on the job, regardless of your immigration status.
The complaint was filed last month with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts and alleges Tara Construction Inc. caused an employee to be arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the man was injured in a fall on the job. He was seriously injured after falling from a ladder in March 2017 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration initiated an investigation into the workplace accident. Shortly thereafter he was arrested by immigrations officials as he left the work office.
Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act protects workers who report an injury to an employer or who cause an OSHA inquiry. Law enforcement accounts indicate a company representative told a police officer when the employee would be present and that there were no objections to the arrest. Text messages back up those claims, according to the government’s case.
Boston Channel 7 News reports a construction worker was killed after being struck by a utility vehicle in Concord. The badly injured worker was transported to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Investigators report the worker was on the side of the road when a backing utility vehicle ran him down.
We recently wrote about the high risk of injury in construction work. And it’s true construction workers face greater and more frequent injury risks than those working in many other occupations. However, transportation accidents are a leading cause of fatal workplace injury across industries and occupations. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports more than one-third of all fatal workplace accidents are caused by transportation incidents, claiming more than 1,700 lives a year.
With the start of winter weather, a wide variety of workers in New England are at increased risk of transportation accidents. From law enforcement, to utility crews and snow-removal crews, workers are often at the mercy of passing motorists when it comes to avoiding serious or fatal on-the-job injuries.
There is no question we are in the midst of a major opioid abuse epidemic in the U.S. Traditionally, the Greater Boston area always had more problems with heroin abuse as compared to many other areas in the nation. But now we are seeing more and more people struggling with addiction to prescription to painkillers that are opioid based.
While the effects of opioid addiction can be devastating whether a person is addicted to Oxycontin purchased at a local pharmacy or heroin bought in a hand-to-hand transaction on the street, many of those who have become addicted to painkillers started taking them as a result of an on the job injury.
One thing to keep in mind is that an on the job injury can occur following a single traumatic event. But as our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys can explain, a workplace injury can also occur from years of wear and tear on the joints and human body. We see repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) like carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), but we also see many cases where employees suffer serious back and joint issues as a result of working on a construction site or at other manual labor. These workers tend to be prescribed painkillers and they can become addictive, especially when they are over-prescribed as is a common problem in our area. Continue reading
Anytime someone is injured on-the-job in Massachusetts, the first course of action is typically a workers’ compensation claim. Pursuant to MGL c. 152 section 25A, most employers in the Commonwealth are required to purchase workers’ compensation that will provide coverage to employees who are injured at work or contract a job-related illness. This insurance provides no-fault coverage of reasonable and necessary medical treatment and lost wages (after the first five calendar days) or partial or full disability benefits and retaining for those workers who qualify. 
However, you may an option to pursue something called third-party liability if another party – not your employer or co-worker – was fully or partially responsible for what happened. If you have grounds to pursue a third-party claim, note that your workers’ compensation insurer and/ or health insurance company may file a lien on whatever you are ultimately awarded. This is allowed so that injured workers’ don’t collect double recovery (i.e., your workers’ comp insurer paid your medical bills and then you are subsequently awarded damages for medical bills in your third-party lawsuit). But that doesn’t mean these cases aren’t worth pursuing. In fact, it’s usually a good idea because third party litigation will allow you to obtain coverage for losses not included in workers’ compensation benefits. These would include things like damages for pain and suffering, full lost wages (workers’ compensation will only pay up to 60 percent of gross average weekly wage for temporary total incapacity benefits for up to 156 weeks, etc.), loss of consortium (for your spouse) and sometimes punitive damages.
That’s not the only difference. While workers’ compensation claimants do not need to prove fault – only that the injury occurred in the course and scope of one’s employment – third party liability lawsuits are just like any other injury lawsuit in that you must prove negligence. In many cases these claims are against contractors or subcontractors, owners of the property on which you were injured (if different from your employer), manufacturers of defective or dangerous tools or motor vehicle operators. Our Boston workers’ compensation attorneys will help you review all of your legal options, identify possible defendants and give you a sense of what damages you can reasonably pursue. Continue reading
In Boston, a worker injured on the job is entitled to workers’ compensation benefits so long as they are an employee within the meaning of the the workers’ compensation act found in Chapter 152, Section 1 of the Massachusetts General Laws (M.G.L). The question that often arises is whether the worker was actually on-the-job at the time of the injury. This can be even more complex when the employee is given a company-owned vehicle or when the injury occurs in the parking lot of the worker’s place of employment.
In the context of company-owned vehicles, some jobs offer the “benefit” of a take home car, meaning the employee can drive the business’s car home at the end of a shift and take it back the next day. This is not so much a “company car” as we see on TV with high-paying jobs, but more like a police car or other type of service vehicle.
According to a recent news article from NECN, a worker employed by the City of Boston was sitting in a vehicle owned by his employer, the city, when someone approached and shot him. Authorities have said the injured worker was in his neighborhood at the time of the shooting on his way to work and is a 54-year-old man who works for Department of Public Works (DPW). Continue reading
When we think of workplace injuries in terms of Boston workers’ compensation cases, we are generally dealing with some type of accident. In many cases, it is simply an accident that was not anyone’s fault. In some cases, the accident is actually the result of an employer’s negligence. There is really is no distinction with respect to workers’ compensation cases because Chapter 152 of the Massachusetts General Laws (M.G.L) established a no-fault system. There is however, a third category of workplace injuries where one worker is physically assaulted by an other employee, customer, or third-party criminal.
These situations happen more frequently than you might assume. There are a lot of assaults between employees in jobs in Boston and across the nation. While there are the high profile cases involving active shooter situations that occur from time to time, we are generally talking about one worker punching another. Contrary to what many people think and see in the movies, a single punch can result in serious injury or even death. Continue reading
Massachusetts Workers Compensation Lawyers Blog