Report Shows Fewer Massachusetts Worker Deaths Last Year

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A new report finds that fewer workers died on the job in Massachusetts in 2010 than in the previous year.

But the report from the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health also calls for tougher federal penalties against companies that violate workplace safety laws.

Forty-two workers suffered fatal injuries last year, compared with 62 in 2009 and 68 in 2008. Seven deaths resulted from falls and three from workplace violence. Deaths among Hispanic workers rose from five in 2009 to seven last year.

The report says fines imposed against companies by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in connection with workplace fatalities averaged less than $6,000 last year, down from more than $13,000 the previous year.

Massachusetts AFL-CIO president Robert Haynes called the fines “paltry.”