In addition to state law protections, most construction workers are covered under the regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act). This federal law was enacted to protect workers across the country from being injured or killed at work.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces the Act primarily by requiring that construction employers abide by workplace safety standards which can help prevent construction accidents from happening.
Workers who believe that their working conditions are unsafe are entitled to file a complaint with OSHA and have a federal inspector come out to their job site. Illinois construction workers are also legally allowed to refuse to work on construction sites which they believe expose them to hazards.
Some of the most common construction site OSHA violations involve scaffolding, shoring of excavation work, and the grounding of electrical wires. Establishing that an employer violated OSHA standards is important in many workers’ compensation cases because OSHA violations show that a construction contractor had lax safety standards. Many of these contractors will seek to shift the blame of a construction accident onto an injured employer in an attempt to reduce the amount of worker’s recovery.
The Illinois construction accident attorneys at GWC Injury Lawyers routinely handle construction accident cases involving OSHA violations. Please visit our OSHA violations page to learn more.
And if you have been wrongfully injured on a construction site, contact GWC today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with one of our dedicated construction accident attorneys. You may call our office at (312) 464-1234 or click here to chat with a representative at any time.
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