Since Gov. Hochul nominated Justice Hector LaSalle to be chief judge of the Court of Appeals, his defenders have urged critics to look beyond the Cablevision vs. CWA District 1 case, which allowed corporations to sue union leaders for defamation. But LaSalle’s broader record in workers’ rights cases underscores that he should not be confirmed.
The role of chief judge is critical because the highest court in the state has been aggressively undermining New York’s workplace protections, including the Labor Law and the State and City Human Rights Laws. Based on his record on the intermediate appellate court, it appears that if LaSalle is confirmed, the high court will continue on its trajectory of limiting worker protections.
First, there’s Campanelli vs. Long Island Lighting Co. A worker’s child allegedly suffered lead poisoning in utero because the worker’s employer violated Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) regulations by failing to provide the worker with proper protection from exposure to lead — so much so that the worker allegedly left work each day with his clothes saturated in lead.
LaSalle joined the court in holding that alleged OSHA violations alone did not prove the company was negligent. Most disturbingly, the court held that the OSHA regulations were only intended to protect the workers, and not workers’ family members — even though the OSHA lead standard both requires that employers provide protective clothing and that lead-contaminated clothing be...
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