Business
Surveillance tech leads workers’ comp claims to plummet at NYC construction sites
New technology is cutting workers’ compensation claims and fraud across industries.
But in construction, the results are on camera.
Working with Arrowsight, a safety technology company specializing in video-based behavioral modification and coaching analytics, specialty cameras are installed around job sites. Those cameras will pick up on things like workers scrambling under a load of lumber suspended from a crane or failing to tie into safety harnesses balanced high above the ground. The videos are flagged by a team and safety supervisors are informed. Workers then get feedback and proper training.
In New York, where both the cost of workers’ compensation insurance and the frequency and severity of claims are among the highest in the nation, the safety improvements from the camera surveillance are so dramatic on construction sites that insurer Zurich North America announced Friday it will only insure construction wrap-up projects that have installed video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight.
A $2 billion, three-year pilot program on nine large-scale New York City construction job sites showed a more than 70% reduction in workers’ comp claims and a near elimination of racketeering charges in NYC when video analytics and coaching from Arrowsight were implemented, the insurer said.
“The dramatic results underscore the power of combining human insight with technology to drive measurable change,” Tobias Cushing, Zurich head of construction, told CNBC. “We saw a virtual elimination of serious injuries and deaths on projects with Arrowsight.”
Arrowsight cameras on-site.
Arrowsight
Arrowsight uses fixed-point cameras that are moveable, battery-powered and cell-enabled that can operate without electricity or internet.
“We have a whole program where we’re using civil engineers overnight to kind of look at all these high-risk work activities and then provide feedback, kind of coaching clips just like you would see on Sports Center to help the supervisors coach the workers to avoid taking these kinds of risks,” Adam Aronson, founder and CEO of Arrowsight, said.
It has increased worker safety compliance rates from around 70% before the implementation of Arrowsight to 97% to 100% in many cases, according to the pilot program data.
Arrowsight’s technology was already in use in a range of other industries, from health-care facilities to meatpacking plants, before Aronson identified construction as an industry that could benefit from video-based tech.
Posillico Civil was the first civil construction company in the U.S. to work with Arrowsight. The four-year pilot study resulted in the company’s Experience Modification Rate (EMR), a key claims-incident rating that factors into workers’ compensation premiums, dropping from 0.65 to 0.25. EMR represents a relative safety score, with scores less than one being favorable.
Arrowsight also signed a master service agreement with Chubb this summer with the primary focus on construction.
Business
Stock Market Live Updates: Sensex, Nifty Hit Record Highs; Bank Nifty Climbs 60,000 For The First Time
Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks opened with a strong gap-up on Monday, December 1, touching fresh record highs, buoyed by a sharp acceleration in Q2FY26 GDP growth to a six-quarter peak of 8.2%. Positive cues from Asian markets further lifted investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex was trading at 85,994, up 288 points or 0.34%, after touching an all-time high of 86,159 in early deals. The Nifty 50 stood at 26,290, higher by 87 points or 0.33%, after scaling a record intraday high of 26,325.8.
Broader markets also saw gains, with the Midcap index rising 0.27% and the Smallcap index advancing 0.52%.
On the sectoral front, the Nifty Bank hit a historic milestone by crossing the 60,000 mark for the first time, gaining 0.4% to touch a fresh peak of 60,114.05.
Meanwhile, the Metal and PSU Bank indices climbed 0.8% each in early trade.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.
Business
South Korea: Online retail giant Coupang hit by massive data leak
Osmond ChiaBusiness reporter
Getty ImagesSouth Korea’s largest online retailer, Coupang, has apologised for a massive data breach potentially involving nearly 34 million local customer accounts.
The country’s internet authority said that it is investigating the breach and that details from the millions of accounts have likely been exposed.
Coupang is often described as South Korea’s equivalent of Amazon.com. The breach marks the latest in a series of data leaks at major firms in the country, including its telecommunications giant, SK Telecom.
Coupang told the BBC it became aware of the unauthorised access of personal data of about 4,500 customer accounts on 18 November and immediately reported it to the authorities.
But later checks found that some 33.7 million customer accounts – all in South Korea – were likely exposed, said Coupang, adding that the breach is believed to have begun as early as June through a server based overseas.
The exposed data is limited to name, email address, phone number, shipping address and some order histories, Coupang said.
No credit card information or login credentials were leaked. Those details remain securely protected and no action is required from Coupang users at this point, the firm added.
The number of accounts affected by the incident represents more than half of South Korea’s roughly-52 million population.
Coupang, which is founded in South Korea and headquartered in the US, said recently that it had nearly 25 million active users.
Coupang apologised to its customers and warned them to stay alert to scams impersonating the company.
The firm did not give details on who is behind the breach.
South Korean media outlets reported on Sunday that a former Coupang employee from China was suspected of being behind the breach.
The authorities are assessing the scale of the breach as well as whether Coupang had broken any data protection safety rules, South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said in a statement.
“As the breach involves the contact details and addresses of a large number of citizens, the Commission plans to conduct a swift investigation and impose strict sanctions if it finds a violation of the duty to implement safety measures under the Protection Act.”
The incident marks the latest in a series of breaches affecting major South Korean companies this year, despite the country’s reputation for stringent data privacy rules.
SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile operator, was fined nearly $100m (£76m) over a data breach involving more than 20 million subscribers.
In September, Lotte Cards also said the data of nearly three million customers was leaked after a cyber-attack on the credit card firm.
Business
Agency workers covering for Birmingham bin strikers to join picket lines
Agency workers hired to cover Birmingham bin strikers will join them on picket lines on Monday, a union has said.
A rally will be held by Unite The Union at Smithfield Depot on Pershore Street, Birmingham, on Monday morning to mark the first day of strike action by agency refuse workers.
Unite said the Job & Talent agency workers had voted in favour of strike action “over bullying, harassment and the threat of blacklisting at the council’s refuse department two weeks ago”.
The union said the number of agency workers who will join the strike action is “growing daily”.
Strikes by directly-employed bin workers, which have been running since January, could continue beyond May’s local elections.
The directly-employed bin workers voted in favour of extending their industrial action mandate earlier this month.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Birmingham council will only resolve this dispute when it stops the appalling treatment of its workforce.
“Agency workers have now joined with directly-employed staff to stand up against the massive injustices done to them.
“Instead of wasting millions more of council taxpayers’ money fighting a dispute it could settle justly for a fraction of the cost, the council needs to return to talks with Unite and put forward a fair deal for all bin workers.
“Strikes will not end until it does.”
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