Home > Personal Injury > Who’s the Boss?

Who’s the Boss?

October 21st, 2009 Edward Harrington Heyburn
If you ask most people who work, “Who’s the boss?” you will get an immediate answer. If you ask a construction worker the same question, it may be difficult to answer. Often there are layers of bosses including owners, general contractors, subcontractors and engineers. Each of these parties may have a responsibility to make sure the construction site is safe. Lawyers deal with this issue every day when their clients are injured after being exposed to hazardous conditions on construction sites. Although an employee generally must pursue a workers compensation claim against his or her employer in lieu of a civil law suit; the employee is not precluded from suing the other culpable parties.

Federal Regulations such as those promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration give the construction industry and lawyers guidance on who is the boss and what their responsibilities are. For example a general or prime contractor has a non-delegable duty to make sure that construction workers have a safe place to work. O.S.H.A. also regulates when a “boss” has to make sure that workers are using safety equipment such as “fall protection.” Unfortunately, many of the “bosses” on a construction site put pressure on the construction worker to get the job done and abandon safe work practices. This often ends up in a catastrophic loss to the worker, the family or the public at large. The law says that the “bosses” are responsible and that may not just be the company signing the construction worker’s pay check. We investigate construction site accidents and determine who is responsible for the worker’s injuries. In doing so, we protect our client’s rights, get them compensated for their losses and put the legal responsibility where is should be, with the “boss.”

Categories: Personal Injury Tags:
Comments are closed.
4 visitors online now
0 guests, 4 bots, 0 members
Max visitors today: 4 at 12:58 am EDT
This month: 12 at 09-04-2010 12:13 am EDT
This year: 31 at 08-09-2010 03:10 am EDT
All time: 31 at 08-09-2010 03:10 am EDT

Plugin by: Online Movies