What is Labor Law Section 240?

New York construction accident attorney Tim Staines explains Labor Law Section 240.

Labor Law Section 240 is the direct descendant of the original scaffold law from 1885. What it does is it protects workers engaged in construction, demolition, cleaning, repair, and building pointing who are working at elevated heights. That’s either someone on a scaffold, someone on a roof, or someone working at the leading edge of a deck in a brand new building that’s being constructed.

What that section of the labor law does is make it so that the owners and the general contractors have an absolute duty to make sure that the workers have protection. Classic examples would be that they have harnesses, they have places to tie off, and the scaffolds have adequate railings so that you can’t fall off the scaffold when it’s abused.

Again, it’s one of those unique provisions in the New York law that makes it so that an injured worker has a remedy to sue the owner of the job site and the general contractors if they’re injured.