Liabilities

• If a construction worker incurs a serious injury on the job site, he may file a civil suit against his employer. If the court finds that the employer was negligent in providing adequate safety equipment and procedures for the employee, the employer may have to pay many thousands or even millions of dollars in damages. To decrease liability, employers must show that they have gone to adequate lengths to protect their employees. Employees who ignore established safety procedures typically cannot hold their employers legally responsible for any injures that they sustain.
  
  

Lost Labor

• To varying degrees, construction workers are skilled workers. A man must go through a certain amount of training before he can operate a crane or use specialized tools. If a company loses construction workers due to injury, either temporarily or permanently, the company must go through the process of training someone else to do that job. This means higher costs and lower efficiency.
  
  

Worker Benefits

• Under various laws, depending on the location, companies may have to actually pay out money to employees who are injured on the job and have to leave temporarily or permanently. When companies provide health plans for their construction workers, an increased number of injuries and the hospital bills associated with them may mean a higher price for company insurance per worker. If the company pays all or a portion of the health insurance premium cost, this will mean a continually higher operating cost.
  
  

Morale

• Morale is very important in construction because employees have to work quickly and efficiently to meet deadlines. While safety considerations may hamper work speed, they can also increase work speed. For instance, a worker who does not have adequate protection equipment may work more slowly than one who does because making a mistake has such a higher chance of causing him injury. Inadequate safety precautions also convey a sense of callousness: employees may see the company as an entity that does not care about their safety, and this will decrease their tendency to work hard for the company.