City Council speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito plans to introduce a legislative package including 18 bills responding to increasing construction site deaths that will go before the city council next week.

The legislation, called the Construction Safety Act, would have implications for crane operation and licensing, place stricter oversight on small construction sites and increase penalties for violating regulations, Crain's reports.

Council member Linda Rosenthal introduced a bill this week that would require the city and federal government to count construction deaths using the same criteria.

As of now, that count only includes incidents connected with code violations or ones that were deemed to pose a threat to public safety, not ones that involve issues of workplace safety, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration oversees.

Mayor Bill de Blasio has expressed skepticism for a bill contained in the package that would mandate training programs for construction workers. [Crain’s]