Exiting From a Height -Labor Law 240(1)

Construction is one of the most dangerous professions one can engage in. Accidents on construction sites happen with unfortunate frequency. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that some 65% of construction workers work on scaffolds or heights. Thus falling from a height represents one of the most common and dangerous accidents on a job site.

A recent NY Trial Courtt decision, Mrockowski v. City of New York, helps ensure workers’ safety when toiling from a height. In general, New York State has Labor Law 240, or the "scaffold law," which protects workers who fall from a height. Labor Law §240(1) states that all contractors and owners who erect or demolish a building have to erect scaffolds, ladders, ropes, among other devices, to provide for a worker’s safety.

Nothing in the wording of §240(1) addresses entrance or egress from a height. Does a contractor or building owner have to provide a safe way to get on or off of a scaffold? Mrockowski v. City says YES. The plaintiff was working from a scaffold 3 ½ stories off the ground. There was no ladder or other means of getting on or off the scaffold, so the plaintiff stepped from the scaffold onto the top of the brick wall that was being built. As he did so, the bricks gave way, causing the plaintiff to lose his balance and fall, causing injury.

The Court, quoting the NY Court of Appeals, recognized the core objective of §240(1) as "requiring protective devices for those working at heights...to allow them to complete their work safely and protect them from falling." Therefore, "a scaffold that does not provide a safe means of returning to the ground level does not provide the protection required by Labor Law section §240(1)."

This is a logical interpretation of the scaffold law to us here at Tolmage Peskin. It would make no sense to protect a worker when he is working at 20' in the air but not protect him when he’s trying to get down from that height. Deciding that the scaffold law includes entrance and egress, ensures that a worker must be protected throughout the whole process of working from a dangerous height; climbing to that height, working at the height and coming back down.
This decision is in line with what Tolmage Peskin believes, and therefore demands from contractors and land owners- namely safety for a worker throughout the construction process.