Football and Roof Falls

Monday was a beautiful day in Boston.  I walked around my Brighton neighborhood and saw people enjoying the sunshine, walking their dogs. I also saw 10 workers atop a high, 3-story peaked and sloped residential roof. They were removing shingles and scraping remaining debris —  without fall protection of any kind. No one was tied off. There were no harnesses, guardrails, or safety nets.  Just about a hundred feet between them and the hard ground below.

Not only is this a clear violation of long-standing, well accepted OSHA standard, but it’s a clear hazard. Anyone viewing the situation would see that. Roofing is one of the most deadly occupations in the U.S., with one of the highest rates of occupational fatalities – (see here, here).  According  the most recent Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 124 fatal injuries for roofing contractors in 2022, 80.6% of which were due to a fall, trip, or slip. Residential roofers – like the ones in my neighborhood — experienced 33 fatal injuries in 2022, with nearly 82% caused by a fall, trip, or slip.

You might want to know how much roofers make for taking on these risks?  According to BLS, the median annual wage for roofers was $47,920 in May 2022. That’s the paltry sum they earn to put on roofs over our heads – not to risk death every day if their employers don’t provide fall protection

Note that their employers are required by law to have business plans that ensure measures are in place that allow workers to come home to their families alive and uninjured at the end of evert day.

Tears Behind the Statistics

There’s a story, a person, and a family behind every work-related illness, injury, and fatality. Can you imagine the pain of learning that your loved one, friend, or colleague fell off a roof and died? Like the 15-year old who fell to his death on the first day of his roofing job (here) – adding the outrage of child labor to hazardous work. Or the 28-year-old in Miami who fell 40 feet and landed on concrete (here). Or the 53-year-old who fell through the roof into the building below (here). And then there’s the story of the Nebraska roofing contractor who’s been held in contempt for failing to comply with an OSHA subpoena related to an employee’s fall from a residential roof (see here).

And why are these called and reported as “accidents?”  An “accident” is defined as “an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.”

Falling off a roof is not an accident.  Working from heights without fall protection is more like an expected and  predictable event

Falling off a roof is not an accident.  Working from heights without fall protection is more like an expected and  predictable event. These falls are highly preventable. OSHA has clear standards to help prevent these tragedies: Any construction employee working on a walking/working surface with an unprotected side or edge, or on a leading edge or near holes or skylights or other surfaces which are 6 feet (1.8 m) or more above a lower level shall be protected from falling by the use of guardrail systems, safety net systems, or personal fall arrest systems.

So Why Is This Happening?

I don’t blame the workers, who are just trying to do their jobs and provide for their families. And I don’t blame OSHA. The agency has a strong standard and has recently issued some significant fines and penalties for contractors who fail to protect their workers from falls (see here, here).  Like this $1 million penalty issued just this week to this New Jersey contractor, previously inspected and cited 5 times for failure to provide workers with fall protection.  How can they still be in business?

And it’s next to impossible for this under-resourced and under-staffed agency to visit every workplace and construction site, let alone find the small constructions jobs in my neighborhood this week.

It’s happening because the lives and health of workers in this country are a  lower priority than they need and deserve.  And there is plenty of blame to go around.

Let’s start with the employers; preventing workplace illnesses, injuries, and fatalities is their responsibility. Not just their moral responsibility; it’s the law.

Moving on to the press and the media, who miss the forest for the trees — the forest being the critical importance of workplace health and safety and the trees being the one-off reports of so-called “accidents.”

How about the funding community? Additional support for OSH research, analyses, and advocacy is clearly needed.

And then there’s Congress and the states, neither of which provide the funding needed to protect the working people of this country.  In 23 states, public employees, who do work as dangerous, or more dangerous than private sector employees, are not even covered by OSHA. They have no legal right to a safe workplace. No legal right to be provided with fall protection.  No legal right to come home alive at the end of the workday.

The National Retail Federation estimated that the 2024 Super Bowl would have a total U.S. spending of $17.3 billion –$86 per person —  which includes food, drinks, decorations, apparel, and other goods. Just to put that in perspective, OSHA spends about $4 per worker on workplace safety — per year.

And last, but not least, there’s OSHA’s budget, which Congress must appropriate. OSHA’s FY 2023 budget is a paltry $632 million, while EPA’s budget is over $10 billion – 15 times more than OSHA’s.

And both of those pale in comparison to what Americans paid for Super Bowl parties last week. The National Retail Federation estimated that the 2024 Super Bowl would have a total U.S. spending of $17.3 billion –$86 per person —  which includes food, drinks, decorations, apparel, and other goods.

Just to put that in perspective, OSHA spends about $4 per worker — per year — on workplace safety

I’m a strong supporter of EPA’s mission, and I’m not questioning its budget. (Nor do I question partying on Super Bowl Sunday).

But come on!  Safe, clean, and healthy workplaces are surely a priority that needs significantly more resources. After all, workers are the lifeblood of our families, our communities, our economy.

And with no offense intended to Super Bowl fans, I say WTF?  We seem to pay more attention to football than to what’s happening or not happening in our nation’s workplaces.  This week, just looking out my window served as yet another reminder.

And hence my need to write this post.