The work realm is a comfortable and even uplifting place for legions of Atlanta metro employees and their peers elsewhere across Georgia. Jobs ensure financial stability for individuals and families. On-the-job effort often yields career advancement. Specialized training enables employees to pursue professional passions. Work venues often serve as locales for meaningful social interaction and the fostering of lifelong friendships.

Many commentators and gurus who weigh in on employment-linked matters frequently note such upsides.

Not OSHA, though. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a quite different take on America’s varied workplaces. Agency officials have a singular view defined by a notably narrow focus and linked concern, and it doesn’t spotlight all that is positive in the employment sphere.

Indeed, its scrutiny attaches to risks and dangers posed for workers in Georgia and nationally. The potential for workplace accidents is an ever-present constant, and OSHA routinely reminds the public of that alarming fact.

OSHA’s top-10 list: a recurrent spotlighting of on-the-job risks

Candidly, not all employment spheres are similar when it comes to workplace risks and danger (notwithstanding that even seemingly “safe” places like offices still spawn downsides like repetitive stress injuries and slip/fall outcomes). Federal regulators underscore that fact every year upon announcement of the agency’s Top-10 list of citations handed out to American employers for safety lapses that yield catastrophic and deadly injuries for workers.

That compilation points starkly toward the construction industry, a work realm where injury catalysts are many and varied. OSHA’s leading injury contributors spotlighted in the agency’s 2019 list include these entrants:

• Falls (perennially a number-one danger, with workers being injured on at-height platforms, scaffolds and ladders)
• Hazard communication (relevant to chemicals, toxic gases and other agents)
• Lockout/tagout lapses (improper disabling of equipment and machines prior to workers’ maintenance activities)
• Inadequate respiratory safeguards to promote safe air/breathing
• Powered construction vehicles, including trucks and forklifts
• Improperly guarded machinery
• Inadequate face and eye protection

Those bulleted concerns spawn worker injuries spanning a wide universe of possibilities. Those range from crush outcomes, amputations and spine/back injuries to head trauma, broken bones and more.

How workers’ compensation can help in the wake of a work injury

The rationale underlying workers’ compensation coverage is clear and simple, even if program application is sometimes problematic: An employee injured during the course of duties has a legal right to compensation, which can be used to defray various costs, including these:

• Medical outlays (e.g., doctor visits, diagnosis, drugs and treatment)
• Expenditures relevant to necessary therapy and rehabilitation
• Lost wages linked to an inability to work
• Disability payments

Accident victims can also pursue an independent personal injury remedy in instances where one or more non-employer third parties (such as contractors, customers, vendors or motorists) negligently contribute to an injury outcome.

An on-the-job accident victim is far from powerless in the wake of a workplace injury. A proven workers’ compensation legal team can provide further information.