Construction and excavation industries saw largest number of fatal injuries
Forty-eight Massachusetts workers died on the job in 2024, a decline from 2023 but still what workplace safety advocates described as “alarming rates” as they called for new state protections.
The annual report from the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) and the Mass. AFL-CIO counted 40 people who died from traumatic injuries at work last year and eight firefighters who died from occupational-related disease. Authors pointed to another 21 worker deaths by suicide or fatal overdoses, a figure they said could rise as more cases are identified.
In 2023, Massachusetts saw 62 workplace fatalities, in addition to 43 workplace suicides and fatal overdoses.
The report said fatal injuries last year were again concentrated in the construction and excavation industries. Falls, slips and trips were the leading causes, they said, contributing to half of worker deaths from injuries.
MassCOSH and the Mass. AFL-CIO called on lawmakers and regulators to strengthen employer accountability measures, alleging the Trump administration is backtracking on protections and Beacon Hill needs to fill gaps.
The Department of Labor Standards could craft regulations addressing extreme weather conditions, workplace violence and infectious disease, they said, or workers’ compensation law amendments could allow civil lawsuits and punitive damages when employers “have shown reckless disregard for the safety of their workers.”
“This year, we face an unconscionable unraveling of protections. With the federal dismantling of [the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health] and a blatant disregard for [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standards, we are witnessing an assault not just on workplace safety but on dignity itself,” MassCOSH Executive Director Tatiana Sofia Begault wrote in the report. “This is not policy; this is betrayal. And the cost is being paid in blood, in broken bones, in grieving families burying their loved ones while Washington looks the other way.”
