Today’s post comes from guest author Rod Rehm, from Rehm, Bennett & Moore.

Many have heard the cliché that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that is especially true when it comes to workplace safety. 

Following up on last week’s Workers’ Memorial Day commemoration, this week is National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction. The lawyers here are prepared to help injured workers’ and their loved ones because of their experience in workers’’ compensation and other issues related to workers’ and personal injury. But is frustrating to realize that all too often, incidents that result in workers’’ injuries on the job could and should have been prevented.

With a goal of reaching 5 million workers’, or over half of the country’s construction workers’, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s voluntary event this year “focuses on ‘Fall Hazards’ and reinforcing the importance of ‘Fall Prevention,’” according to the National Safety Stand Down website.

“Falls continue to be the construction industry’s leading cause of death; each year, hundreds of workers’ die and thousands more suffer catastrophic, debilitating injuries. Despite these chilling statistics, the absence of proper fall protection remains the violation cited most frequently by federal safety inspectors,” according to this news release from the U.S. Labor Department. 

Both of the pages linked to above include good resources for employers and workers’ to explore and consider for their workplaces to bring greater safety awareness to construction zones, regardless of what’s being built. 

“Our nation and our economy should not be built on the backs of fallen and injured workers’,” said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the Labor Department’s news release. “The National Safety Stand-Down to Prevent Falls is an opportunity to reach millions of workers’ and bring employers, unions and other organizations together to show their commitment to safety and to ensure construction workers’ end their shift safe, healthy and ready to return home.” 

Please contact an experienced workers’’ compensation lawyer if you have questions about a specific situation that you or a loved ones has encountered. Have a safe and productive month.