For employers, trying to keep up with constantly evolving employment laws is a real juggling act. The most recent wave of change has revolved around how you pay your workers, with new minimum wage laws and overtime rules going into effect just in the past two years.

It’s one of the most frightening scenarios you could ever face – a disgruntled employee or angry customer entering your business and wreaking havoc with a gun or explosive device, causing injuries and even deaths. It’s a nightmare that’s hard for most people to imagine.

Construction sites are among the most dangerous places to work, even in good weather. Add winter weather into the mix, and the risks can multiply. With winter weather being so unpredictable, construction managers and general contractors should take extra precautions to reduce jobsite risks and protect their workers during winter months.

If you’re a business owner with employees, workers’ compensation is already one of your biggest and costliest headaches. When you add fraud to the mix, it can only complicate matters and drive up costs. In fact, businesses like yours spend millions every year for overtime expenses, medical and legal costs, production delays, training costs for temporary help, and higher insurance premiums due to workers’ comp fraud.

Here in New York State, we’re no strangers to cold, ice, and snow. And while winter can be a beautiful time of year, it can also be extremely dangerous. The recent winter storms here on the East Coast should be an adequate reminder of that. Hundreds of people in the U.S. die each year either directly due to winter storms and cold or in winter-related motor vehicle accidents.

As a business owner, the New Year is a busy time for you with end of year recordkeeping, employee benefits issues, evolving compliance regulations, and a long list of other responsibilities. And this year, we have a new President and administration coming onboard that could shake things up again.

It’s no secret the construction business can be a deadly line of work. According to OSHA, 18.5 percent of all workplace deaths in the U.S. happen in the construction industry. That’s more than in any other industry.

As anyone experienced in the construction business knows, heavy equipment is big, powerful, and potentially dangerous, and it deserves a healthy dose of respect. Yet every year, thousands of heavy equipment related incidents result in property damage, injuries, and even fatalities. According to OSHA, there were 4,386 worker fatalities in private industry in 2014, and 20.5 percent – one in five – were construction related.

As you’ve probably heard by now, opponents have succeeded in stopping the Department of Labor’s new overtime rule—for now, at least.

When fire destroyed the Ghost Ship in Oakland, California, on Friday, December 2, it became the deadliest fire in the city’s history. Thirty six people were killed while attending a concert at the facility, an old warehouse that had been converted into an artists collective. It was also one of the deadliest building fires in the U.S. in a half century, and the deadliest mass-casualty event in Oakland since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.