Lynn man’s tragic death is part of worker safety report

LYNN - A new report that highlights unsafe working conditions in Massachusetts is bolstered by the case of a Lynn teenager who fell to his death during a roofing job in Salem last Aug. 30.

Seventeen-year-old Benedelson Ovalle Chavez had no training for such work and lacked proper equipment to ensure his safety, according to the report, titled Dying for Work in Massachusetts.

Chavez fell 20 feet while repairing the roof of a Salem church. He had been employed by the construction company for two months but had received no instruction or fall protection. A recent immigrant from Guatemala, Chavez spoke no English and, eager to earn money for his family, was given work that was extremely dangerous even for a well-trained and equipped adult, the report stated.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Chavez’s employer, B.C. Construction, $22,400 for, among other violations, a repeat violation of fall protection requirements. The general contractor, Olympic Painting and Roofing Co. a firm with a long history of labor and safety violations, remains free of any charges, according to Tim Sullivan of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH), which released the report along with the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.

Rosa Blumenfeld, a North Shore Labor Council organizer, said the number of workplace fatalities in Massachusetts is the highest since 2003. “Most of these deaths were preventable,” she said.

Blumenfeld noted that many companies view OSHA fines as part of the cost of doing business. Of all workplace deaths in Massachusetts last year, 12 cases were settled. Together, the cases had an average final penalty assessed at $5,383 per death,” she said.

To earn a VPP rating, a company must invite OSHA field agents to rigorously inspect their facilities for safety violations.

“For obvious reasons, not every company does that,” Crosby said.

The reports cited 80 workplace deaths in Massachusetts during 2007, up by four from the previous year. Among the victims: Richard Powers, 45, a paramedic for Gloucester-based Beauport Ambulance, who collapsed and was found dead after returning from a call near the end of working his second 24-hour shift in a row. Stressful and demanding work conditions appear to be contributing to or are the primary cause of Powers’ death, according to the report.

Another victim, service technician Gary Gibbons, 53, of South Weymouth, was killed on the job while attempting to repair a problem on Verizon phone lines. Gibbons was electrocuted last Oct. 26 while working in an elevated bucket near high voltage electrical wires. His death n the fifth Verizon workplace fatality in two years n highlights persistent safety concerns raised by workers at the huge telecommunications company, the report stated.

The reported asserted that the paramedic might not have suffered a fatal heart attack had he not been working his second 24-hour shift, while the technician likely died because his employer provided him with an elevated bucket that was not insulated.

Also on the victims list was Paulo Costa, 30, of Somerville, who died on April 9, 2007 while working as a bricklayer in Revere. Occupational safety inspectors have been trying to determine the circumstances that contributed to Costa’s stepping into the path of a construction vehicle.

“The findings are extremely disturbing,” said Marcy Goldstein-Gelb, MassCOSH executive director and the report’s co-author. “It’s not just the number, which is unacceptable. It’s also what’s behind the numbers n that so many of these men and women could have been with us today had their employer not given safety short shrift.”

The report was released to coincide with Workers Memorial Day, which on April 28 pays homage to workers killed and injured on the job and renews the call for improving workplace safety. This year, the day was celebrated on April 29 on the steps to the State House in Boston.

“It is an absolute outrage that in this day and age, we have such a high number of lives lost on the job,” said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Robert J. Haynes.

Among other highlights contained in the report: In all sectors of the economy, companies rush to increase profits at the expense of workers’ health and lives by downsizing, understaffing, overloading workers, extending hours of work, combining jobs, and contracting out. Misclassification n when employers treat employees as independent contractors n has enabled some employers to distance themselves from the dangerous conditions of a workplace n and the resulting injuries and deaths.

Not surprisingly, commercial fishing claimed the lives of more workers in Massachusetts during 2000 - 2007 than any other single occupation. Commercial fishing has been found to be the most dangerous industry in the country.

The report calls for strengthening state and federal regulations, including protections for public employees and immigrant workers. After all, immigrants accounted for 20 percent or 16 of the 80 workplace fatalities, while their representation in the workforce was 16.97 percent in 2007.

Immigrants suffer from poor working conditions, lack of training, employer exploitation coupled with fear of retaliation and deportation for speaking up about hazards, according to the report.

Local Weather