by Secretary Tom Perez- I am a big believer in basic fairness: if you play by the rules, you should have the opportunity to succeed. That’s true in life and also in business. The vast majority of employers understand this principle and abide by it every day with measurable success. But I think we can all agree that those businesses that break the law by cutting corners at the expense of their workers should not benefit from taxpayer-funded federal contracts.

One fatality is too many, but there’s good news from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: the U.S. workplace fatality rate set a record low in 2013, dropping to 3.3 deaths for every 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

Nine contractors at the Oasis Park Square residential development in Doral, Florida learned a hard lesson when OSHA inspectors visited the work site in November 2014.

Although construction accounts for less than four percent of the jobs in New York City, it represents 20 percent of the on-the-job deaths, according to a report released yesterday by the New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health (NYCOSH).

As it enters its second week, OSHA’s effort to prevent falls in the construction industry is causing work stoppages around the globe.

A joint report conducted by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) and the  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concludes workers who are Hispanic, young and work for small construction firms likely face greater occupational safety and health challenges than almost any other employee segment or industry in the United States.

A 30-year-old roofer's life was tragically cut short in November 2014 after a fall caused severe head trauma. The man was found unresponsive below a 32-foot extension ladder he was using to renovate a roof at a two-story building at Missouri's Whiteman Air Force Base.

With this year’s National Fall Safety Stand-Down – which began on Monday – OSHA is hoping to reach even more than the million+ workers who heard the word in the 2014 event, by way of the more than 5,000 construction industry employers who got involved.