Mamdani, DOB creating construction safety committee

As part of his broader “Block by Block” housing agenda, Mayor Zohran Mamdani will announce May 26 that the city will establish a new Committee on Construction Safety aimed at reducing fatalities and injuries in one of New York’s deadliest industries.

“At a moment when working people are being pushed out of the city they built, New York cannot afford half-measures or delays,” Mamdani said in a statement announcing the plan. “We are setting the most ambitious housing production and preservation targets in the city’s modern history … while also protecting tenants and homeowners, investing in public housing and ensuring the workers building that housing have good-paying, safe jobs.”

City officials said the committee, expected to convene in fall 2026, will study recurring causes of injuries and fatalities and recommend legislative, enforcement and accountability reforms. The body will be overseen by Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Leila Bozorg, Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su and Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Tigani.

It will include labor representatives, workers, city officials and industry experts.

In an interview with The Chief, DOB Commissioner Ahmed Tigani said the administration is attempting to balance its push for faster housing production with stronger workplace protections.

“We have a desperate need for more housing supply,” Tigani said. “But in order to have the trust of the people who are going to be affected by that development, we need to demonstrate that we are going to hold firm on the protections that are in place.”

The administration says the committee will also examine how emerging technology could reduce dangerous work and limit workers’ exposure to extreme weather. Officials pointed to robotics, sensor-equipped wearables and digital construction management systems as tools that could reduce hazardous tasks and create safer, more regulated job sites. 

Still, officials stressed that the strongest protections against injuries and deaths remain rigorous enforcement, employer accountability, comprehensive worker training in employees’ primary languages and ensuring workers can refuse unsafe assignments without fear of retaliation.

Construction fatalities have risen

While the City’s 2025 construction safety report showed injuries on building sites fell 34 percent — from 482 in 2024 to 320 in 2025, a 58 percent decline from the recent high of 759 injuries in 2018 — fatalities still increased this year, rising from seven to 10 deaths.

 Falls remained the leading cause of death on construction sites, accounting for six of the city’s 10 fatalities this year.

One of the incidents occurred during renovations at the Waldorf Astoria New York, where a worker assisting with an electrical installation fell roughly 40 feet through a ceiling into the ballroom below and died from his injuries. Investigators later concluded the worker lacked proper fall protection equipment and that the scope of the assignment had not been “adequately communicated” to him.

DOB issued a full stop-work order following the death.

Other fatalities this year involved building collapses during demolition work, workers struck by heavy machinery and severe burns sustained during welding operations.

The Chief has previously reported on the widespread mental health concerns among construction workers, including addiction and suicide, issues Tigani said the new committee will address.

While suicides are not currently included in the agency’s annual construction safety report, Tigani said DOB intends to add them for the next report. He added that due to a City Council bill passed late last year, the agency recently mandated a two-hour mental health and suicide prevention component in the city’s Site Safety Training program, which officials estimate will eventually reach nearly 450,000 workers renewing safety certification cards.

Expanding oversight of wage theft

Tigani also said DOB has expanded outreach to immigrant and vulnerable workers who may fear interacting with enforcement agencies. In recent months, the department launched multilingual public education campaigns explaining the role of DOB inspectors and clarifying that the agency’s enforcement work is separate from federal immigration enforcement.

Union officials have said some contractors evade accountability by dissolving companies after receiving stop-work orders and reopening under new names to continue bidding on city contracts. 

The mayor’s office said it plans to strengthen enforcement against repeat offenders through the agency’s buildings tech lab, which uses data analytics to identify contractors operating unsafe sites.

The department has also expanded proactive enforcement efforts, with roughly 30 percent of enforcement inspections now initiated by DOB rather than triggered by complaints or accidents.

“By going to these major sites, looking at what’s happening in an uninvited sense, we’re trying to keep an extra eye and protect those people who are put in unsafe situations,” Tigani said.

Though he declined to specify which unions will serve on the committee, the building's commissioner said organized labor and worker organizations will play a central role in the initiative. He described organized labor as one of DOB’s “key stakeholders” and said the administration has been in regular conversations with unions about construction safety.

“The mayor is unequivocally pro-labor,” he said.