Suffolk County

Suffolk Construction safety shutdown citywide

BOSTON, Mass. — Suffolk Construction sites are all on pause across the city as they revisit all of their safety protocols. The company voluntarily shut down its sites after two incidents within 24 hours where workers were hurt.

The Suffolk Construction site in South Boston was eerily quiet days after three workers were seriously hurt in a collapse. Suffolk voluntarily shut down all of its sites across the city to make sure safety was in order. We talked to workplace safety experts at MassCOSH, an advocacy group for worker safety. Al Vega is the non-profits Director of Policy & Programs. “Reevaluate, is this being done correctly. Have we taken all the measures necessary to ensure no one is potentially going to be injured,” said Vega.

[ Read: Three workers hurt in South Boston construction site collapse ]

MassCOSH credits Suffolk for shutting down on its own but also is urging all construction companies to do this regularly. “This is something that shouldn’t be happening as a reaction to incidents but something that is more proactive and regularly happening,” said Vega.

Rick Rabin is a technical consultant at MassCOSH. Rabin points out OSHA, the federal agency that investigates these incidents, needs a stronger backing. “OSHA has very, very few inspectors to get out and inspect so the odds of a companies violations being caught are pretty low,” said Rabin.

[ Read: South End worker fall precedes Suffolk Construction’s voluntary pause ]

MassCOSH says OSHA fines are also too low and some companies just write off violations as the cost of doing business. OSHA says they can fine just over 14 thousand dollars for a serious violation and just over 145 thousand dollars for a willful violation. The penalties are adjusted yearly for inflation. “These kinds of injuries and deaths are unfortunately are really, way too common and we need more OSHA inspections,” said Rabin.

Suffolk telling us Friday they will closely evaluate each site and some may open sooner than others. Right now there is no timeline for how soon.

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