Construction Safety Week 2025: A Call to Action from our New York Construction Accident Lawyers

Construction Safety Week 2025 is underway, and as New York construction accident attorneys, we urge every contractor, laborer, and site manager to take this moment seriously. The weeklong initiative—launched in partnership with OSHA’s National Safety Stand-Down—focuses this year on preventing falls, which remain the leading cause of death in the construction industry.

The 2025 theme, All in Together, is a timely reminder that safety is a shared responsibility. One lapse in protocol, one missing harness, or one ignored warning sign can lead to catastrophic injury or death. That’s why this Wednesday, May 7, companies across the U.S. and Canada are being asked to pause work and participate in the largest coordinated safety stand-down in the industry’s history.

From a legal perspective, we’ve seen far too many cases where a worker’s life was forever changed due to preventable falls from scaffolds, ladders, roofs, or other elevated surfaces. And in New York, under Labor Law §§ 240 and 241, contractors and property owners have a clear and non-delegable duty to provide proper fall protection. When they fail to do so, we step in to fight for justice.

But prevention is always better than litigation. We applaud the industry’s top contractors—many of whom helped found Safety Week in 2014—for continuing to invest in training, equipment, and culture change. As attorneys who represent injured workers, we also encourage union leaders and forepersons to use this week not just for compliance, but for real conversations. Are your workers trained in fall arrest systems? Are guardrails and safety nets being maintained? Are subcontractors held to the same standards?

If you’ve been injured in a construction accident, especially due to a fall, know that legal protections exist to hold negligent parties accountable.

This week is about awareness—but every week must be about action. Safety can’t be a once-a-year initiative. It must be a permanent jobsite value.

Resources:
Visit www.constructionsafetyweek.com for free materials, safety activity ideas, and multilingual resources to implement on your site.