Bronx Construction Accidents More Likely in Companies Facing High Earnings Pressures

When companies have a culture that involves a high earnings pressures, Bronx construction accidents are more likely.

That's according to a recent study published in the Journal of Accounting and Economics that found workplace injuries and fatalities soar when managers are under high-stress to bolster the bottom line.

As our Bronx construction accident attorneys know, companies primarily concerned with profits have a tendency to cut corners, which means the risk of workplace injuries is higher.

Your Options for Compensation

Construction workers who are injured may have several means of pursuing claims for damages, including:

• Workers' compensation benefits, as outlined in the states workers' compensation regulations. This type of coverage is no-fault, meaning even if you were to blame for what happened, you may still be able to collect benefits that will cover your medical bills and a portion of your lost wages.
• Third-party liability lawsuits. These would involve claims against a company or property owner who is not your employer, but had some type of control over the site and owed a duty of care to use reasonable precautions to keep you safe and failed.
• Product liability lawsuit. This would arise in cases where a defective machine or tool or other product caused your injuries. To prove a product liability case in New York, you need to show that the product was unsafe, or that the product was defectively designed or constructed or that there were inadequate warnings or instructions about how to use it safely.

Some of these claims may be pursued simultaneously, depending on the circumstances of your case.

Profit-Fueled Firms Fare Worse on Safety

The study by Harvard researchers published in the accounting and economics journal focused on the relationship between managers' attempts to meet earnings expectations and workplace safety. For the latter part, researchers gleaned data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) as collected between 2002 and 2011 - some 35,350 workplace injury claims from nearly 900 companies.

Researchers were particularly interested in companies that either met or barely beat the expectations for financial forecast.

When they controlled for other factors, the workplace injury and illness rates were 5 to 15 percent higher in periods where the company met or just beat the profits as forecast. This was a significantly higher rate than was seen by companies that comfortably beat or fell far below forecasts.

Why Do Companies Who Cut it Close Do Worse?

Researchers opined there were likely two reasons for this:

• When there is a high demand to meet expenditures, companies often place additional demands on workers. This might improve the bottom line, but it can put worker safety in jeopardy if they are given too much work or not enough training on important aspects of the job. They may also place pressure on employees to work faster or longer hours. This can put them at risk of fatigue, which also raises the chances for a workplace injury.
• Companies that are highly concerned about expenditures are far less likely to spend the money necessary to ensure the proper safety tools are available and employees have the proper training.

If you have been involved in a construction accident in the Bronx, we will work to help you obtain compensation.