Hard Hats & Justice Episode 1: "Maria's Fall: The Law That Saved Her Life" It was just another Monday morning in midtown Manhattan—until a rotten plank snapped beneath Maria's feet. The fall left her paralyzed from the waist down. For this 41-year-old single mother and construction worker, everything changed in seconds. In the premiere episode of Hard Hats & Justice, attorney Chris Gorayeb tells the haunting true story of Maria's fall and the law that stood between her and destitution: New York's Scaffolding Law (§240). More than a century old and unique to New York, this statute forces contractors and building owners to take full responsibility for unsafe work conditions at height. Gorayeb unpacks how this landmark law—now under attack by corporate lobbyists and insurers—has saved thousands of workers from ruin, and what could happen if it's ever repealed. Through vivid storytelling, sobering statistics, and decades of legal experience, he reveals the brutal truth of construction work in America's largest city: safety is never guaranteed, and justice is always earned through the fight. About Gorayeb & Associates, P.C. For over 40 years, Gorayeb & Associates has been the voice of injured construction workers across New York City. Known as The People's Lawyers, the firm has recovered nearly $2 billion for over 10,000 clients, defending the rights of immigrants and working-class laborers who built this city—and deserve its protection. SHORT DESCRIPTION In Hard Hats & Justice: "Maria's Fall — The Law That Saved Her Life," attorney Chris Gorayeb recounts the devastating accident that left a New York construction worker paraplegic—and how New York Labor Law §240, known as the Scaffolding Law, became her only hope for justice. This episode examines the legal framework that protects workers from unsafe job conditions, the ongoing corporate efforts to repeal those protections, and the human cost of negligence in one of the world's most dangerous industries. With decades of courtroom experience, Gorayeb connects Maria's story to the larger fight for worker rights, safety reform, and accountability in construction. Keywords: New York scaffolding law, construction accident podcast, workplace safety, labor law §240, worker rights NYC, Gorayeb & Associates, Chris Gorayeb, construction injury law, workplace justice, legal podcast. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT 00:00 – Chris Gorayeb It was a Monday morning and Maria went to her job as a laborer in midtown Manhattan, and before lunch, her life completely changed. My name is Chris Goreb and this is our first episode of Hearts, hats and Justice. If you're a construction worker or know someone who is a construction worker in New York City, then this broadcast is for you. We're going to be talking about construction accidents in New York, the effect that they have upon the construction workers, their families and the types of compensation that construction workers can receive when they're hurt. I look forward to explaining all of this to you. On that Monday, maria went to work, as she had done for six months at this job site in Manhattan, working as a laborer, and on this day, she climbed up onto a sidewalk bridge. She began her work and then, without warning, she stood on a rotten Osha plank. That broke and caused Marie to fall 20 feet. But before she hit the ground, her back landed on a cross brace, breaking multiple of her thoracic vertebrae, breaking multiple of her thoracic vertebra, rendering this 41 year old woman, a single mother of a learning disabled child, paraplegic. As a result of that, her life completely changed, and let me explain to you what now happened. She was hospitalized for two months. She was in rehabilitation for another three months, able to obtain her workers' compensation. We then brought a lawsuit against the owner of the building and the general contractor, who both were responsible for making sure that this job site was safe, making sure that the planks weren't rotten. Making sure that the planks weren't rotten, making sure that she had a lifeline and a harness to prevent her from falling in the event that something like a plank did break. But they did none of these things for her. 02:43 You're going to hear that Maria is protected by something that's known in New York as the scaffolding law. It's a law that was enacted more than 100 years ago and it's unique to New York State. The reason why the scaffolding law is unique to New York State is because no other state has a statute like it, but luckily, new York does. And the reason why New York does is because we have so much construction in New York high rise buildings. We have a statute in New York City that requires that every five years, a building over six stories must be inspected on its exterior, a sidewalk bridge must be installed, workers must climb scaffolds to inspect the buildings, and every time one of those buildings is inspected, there's the chance for a terrible accident to occur. 03:36 There is an effort in New York to repeal that scaffold law. The people who want to repeal the law are those building owners and contractors and their insurance companies that have to compensate people like Maria for the injuries that they sustain, and they don't like compensating. They want to collect premiums and not pay. The problem with it is that someone like Maria and the thousands of construction workers that are hurt in New York every single year would be unable to obtain real compensation if it were not for the scaffolding law. The scaffolding law is the only thing that workers can turn to other than workers' compensation, and workers' compensation provides marginal benefits for only a very short period of time. Were it not for the scaffolding law, people would be rendered paraplegic, maimed, they lose arms, put in positions where they can't work and support their families, with nowhere to turn. We live in a society right now where there is an effort to restrict our people's access to medical care, making it more difficult to obtain medical care, making insurance much more expensive medical care making insurance much more expensive and without the scaffolding law, thousands, tens of thousands of people would be put in a position where they would be maimed, unable to work, unable to support their families, with nowhere to turn, not even to the government. There are efforts now to even change the scaffolding law so that the law wouldn't apply to buildings where the federal government has provided financing, and you have to ask yourself who would work on those buildings, knowing that they would be exposed to the dangers of construction, but unable to obtain compensation when they were badly hurt. 05:53 You know, the statistics in New York are incredible. Almost every hour, two construction workers get hurt. In 2023, 30 construction workers in New York City were killed in construction accidents. 39% of the deaths in construction accidents are the result of falls from ladders, from scaffolds, from beams, from roofs. Statistically and it's hard to believe that, if you work in construction for approximately 35 years, there's a 75% chance that you are going to sustain a serious, disabling injury. 06:45 Construction is one of the most dangerous jobs that anyone can do and it's one of the most essential jobs that we as a society need. Whether schools are being built, homes are being constructed, apartments are being constructed, office buildings are being constructed, bridges and highways are being constructed, apartments are being constructed, office buildings are being constructed, bridges and highways are being constructed we need Construction workers. And all of the people that work in those jobs run the risk of being injured to the point where they'll no longer be able to work, no longer be able to support their families, no longer be able to pay their bills. That's why the construction laws are so important and that's what we do here to protect construction workers. We even run classes providing the ability for construction workers to obtain OSHA certification so that accidents won't happen. But unfortunately, even with the best training, these accidents occur. Construction workers be hurt, but the owners and the contractors will no longer have incentive to provide protections to these workers. Why? Because they won't have to pay them if they get hurt, and individuals who are working on construction sites will more than likely be treated as disposable labor. And the less connection you have, the more disposable you become. Union workers, they're more protected. But if you're not in the union, you don't get trained, you have nowhere to turn. 08:35 If you complain to the boss, what happens? The boss fires you because someone else is going to be looking for that job. We know of many instances, thousands of instances. We've represented almost 13,000 construction workers where an accident occurs and the boss won't call an ambulance. The boss will tell a worker go home. If you need to go to the hospital, tell them that your accident happened at home. And why would they do that? They do that so that if a claim is ever made, the boss can say there was no accident. He reported it at home. There was no ambulance, there's no proof of an accident. Okay, all they want to do the contractors, the owners of the buildings, the insurance companies themselves is save money, collect premiums and pay nothing. They don't care what happens to the construction worker, to his family or to his future his future. 09:52 My job is to explain all of this and to seek compensation for those individuals. So whenever you're working as a construction worker really in any job, but we're talking about construction there are a lot of people that want to pay you in cash. But the problem with being paid in cash is that the boss can deny that they know who you are when an accident occurs. Th
