Employers in New York have the responsibility to create a safe workplace for their employees, and there are federal guidelines in place to ensure that health and safety hazards are eliminated, if possible. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration explains that as the federal agency responsible for enforcing compliance, it conducts jobsite inspections to analyze the risk of injuries and fatalities on the jobsite. These are carried out by officers who are trained in the industry standards to identify dangerous conditions and offer solutions and guidance so that the situations can be remedied.

For the fiscal year 2015, which spans from Oct 1, 2014 through Sept. 30, 2015, OSHA has provided a list of the 10 most common safety standard violations that the agency cited. By raising awareness of these safety hazards, OSHA officials hope to prompt employers to assess their own jobsites to determine whether situations require corrective action to prevent injuries. Unfortunately, construction standards are high on the list of violations. In fact, fall protection, scaffolding and ladder construction standard violations made the top 10 list.

There are other standard violations that are not specific to construction, but still may be cited on jobsites. Machine guarding standard violations are among these because they often apply to safety hazards involving portable power tools, power saws, jointers and other equipment common to construction sites. Similarly, a building site may be in violation of electrical wiring standards. If employers in the industry take OSHA’s warning seriously, it may reduce the number of hazards that construction workers face every day.