I am writing in response to your Nov. 13 editorial "Reform needed." This attempted modification of a necessary public-policy law to protect workers ignores the realities of the work place and the safety of workers to satisfy insurance industry profit concerns.

Labor Law sec. 240 ensures that contractors provide their workers with necessary safety equipment and holds them liable if they fail to do so. It requires the owner of commercial construction and the general contractor to police their subcontractors to protect the subs' employees from shoddy equipment or unsafe practices. It is the only incentive pushing profit-hungry contractors to follow safety regulations and to keep their work force safe.

Workers cannot sue employers when they are injured because of a lack of safety equipment, proper scaffolds, ladders, cranes, etc. They can, under the existing law, proceed against the people or organizations who can control their employers for a fair recovery for their injuries.

If successful, they don't get to keep all the recovery. They must reimburse the Workers' Compensation carrier for all wages received and all medical paid on their behalf. They receive no additional benefits from Compensation until they exhaust their net recovery from the owner or general contractor. This is no windfall for catastrophic injuries. It is only fair that people who could have avoided the injury, pay for it.

The contractors you cite complain of the cost of doing business in New York. If the "Scaffold law" is gutted as you recommend, what will be the cost to those construction workers injured or killed by contractors placing profit over people?

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