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(USGovernment-News.Com, June 23, 2013 ) Dallas, TX -- Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver has decided not to hear changes to New York’s Scaffolding Law that would have made juries decide whether construction workers’ actions could have had an effect on their injuries, placing more burdens on the construction companies and their employees.
The law is 128 years old, and according to New York Daily News, it’s the last in the entire nation of its kind. New York City is the only city that places the full responsibility of falls on construction sites on builders and developers, which costs them billions of dollars on each project.
Mayor Bloomberg and his administration joined developers in an effort to push new legislation changes this year putting effort and money into lobbyists who claim that the current Scaffolding Law only inflates taxpayer money, especially when public funds are used to build public works projects.
Michael Wyland, Silver’s spokesman, made the disappointing announcement Wednesday when he said “changes to the Scaffolding Law will not be heard this year”.
Silver, who works for a major law firm focusing on personal injury in New York City predicted that it would die in the legislation sessions that end on Friday anyway. Tom Stebbins and the Lawsuit Reform Alliance, a group that fought hard to make the changes to the Scaffolding Law claims that Silver is only profiting from the current law, and accused his firm of “conflict of interest” in order to continue raking in millions of dollars in won injury settlements.
Silver and his office denied the allegations, but refused to comment further.
Others who oppose the bill believe that lessening the burden on builders and developers would hurt construction workers who make low wages and have less than affordable health care. Those workers who rely on safety training and their company’s equipment benefit from the Scaffolding Law.
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