New law requires 40 hours of construction safety training

On Behalf of | May 11, 2018 | Construction Accidents |

After much debate, the New York Department of Buildings (DOB) has finally settled on the construction safety training requirements originally put in place last year when the City Council passed Local Law 196.

As recently reported by Crain’s New York Business, construction workers will now be required to complete 40 hours of safety training by next spring. While last year’s law allowed the city to require as many as 55 hours of training, officials ultimately decided to only mandate the minimum 40 hours.

Many construction workers should have already completed a 10-hour OSHA-approved training by this past March, but now they must also complete another 30 hours by December, according to a recent press release issued by the DOB. And as stated clearly in this press release, “By May 1, 2019, workers will be required to have 40 hours of safety training.”

While construction workers can fulfill these hours in a variety of ways, some of the course work will likely focus on:

  • Fall prevention
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Substance abuse

Given the spike in construction deaths in recent years, many believe this additional safety training is sorely needed — although some groups were hoping that more hours would be required. In any case, it is an important step to protecting the safety of our city’s construction workers.