The first 72 hours after a member is hurt on a construction site matter more than the next six months. Here is what union reps can do.
Confirm the member is in medical care. Note the bus number / ambulance unit / hospital. Note the time of the incident as the member or witnesses report it.
Identify witnesses — every worker who was on the site, every foreman, every visitor. Photograph the scene before it is altered. Confirm the OSHA report obligation with the GC; OSHA notifications for hospitalization-required incidents are due within 24 hours under 29 CFR §1904.39. Document any equipment involved. The C-3 claim form to the workers’ comp board has its own deadlines.
Get the union health-and-safety officer onto the site if any safety issues are implicated. The CBA may give the union access rights to inspect, photograph, and document. Notify the union legal department or refer the member to plaintiff’s-side counsel — the third-party negligence case against the GC and owner is separate from and parallel to the workers’ comp claim, and the case for the member’s full recovery (pain and suffering, full lost wages, full medical care over time) is the third-party case. Refer the member directly to counsel; do not rely on the member to identify a lawyer in the days after a serious injury.
Union welfare-fund payments and workers’ comp benefits are often coordinated. The member’s full recovery on the third-party case is the path to making the family whole. Light-duty return-to-work issues frequently put the member’s comp-rate income at risk; the union rep is in the best position to flag those tensions early.
We work directly with union halls and shop stewards across NYC. Construction cases on behalf of members are our practice center. The referral process is simple — call the firm and we will speak with the rep first, then with the member.
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Get the member to medical care. Then preserve the basics: site name and address, GC and sub on site that day, supervisor, names of any co-workers who saw it, any equipment involved (model and ID number if visible), and any photos. Then call a lawyer — same day if the injury is serious. Notice deadlines on public projects begin running immediately.
No. A third-party Labor Law case is filed against the owner and general contractor, not against the member’s employer. Workers’ Comp benefits run in parallel. The third-party case can produce a much larger recovery for the member, and any comp lien is negotiated as part of the settlement.
We represent members of multiple New York trades — laborers, ironworkers, carpenters, electricians, sheet metal workers, masons, roofers, demolition workers, operating engineers. We are not affiliated with any single local or trust fund. We honor all attorney-referral arrangements where they exist.
Yes. We do periodic presentations on Labor Law §§240/241/200 basics, what to do in the 72 hours after an injury, and the practical mechanics of a third-party case alongside a comp claim. Reach out and we’ll schedule.
No. Balbuena v. IDR Realty LLC, 6 N.Y.3d 338 (2006) confirms that immigration status does not bar recovery in a New York Labor Law case. Lost wages, medical, and pain-and-suffering are all recoverable. Immigration status is not disclosed to immigration authorities in the course of a civil case.
