Assistant Secretary of Labor Dr. David Michaels is suggesting criminal penalties for companies whose negligence has caused construction accidents. He says that the monetary penalties just aren’t doing the job.

He says that jail time would send a wake-up call to these risk-taking employers. Michaels was speaking at a “Safety 2010″ convention in Baltimore for construction safety experts. There, he lamented the greedy employers who consider the death of a worker just the price of business.

OSHA reports that over 5,000 workers die in construction accidents every year in the United States. Michaels quoted Mother Jones by saying, “Mourn for the dead, but fight like hell for the living.”

Construction accidents can seriously injure you. If you or someone you know has been injured on the job in a construction accident and need to collect your workers’ compensation, call the dependable New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A., at 1-800-34-NJ-LAW.