N.Y. LAB Law § 240

§ 240. Scaffolding and other devices for use of employees. 1. All\ncontractors and owners and their agents, except owners of one and\ntwo-family dwellings who contract for but do not direct or control the\nwork, in the erection, demolition, repairing, altering, painting,\ncleaning or pointing of a building or structure shall furnish or erect,\nor cause to be furnished or erected for the performance of such labor,\nscaffolding, hoists, stays, ladders, slings, hangers, blocks, pulleys,\nbraces, irons, ropes, and other devices which shall be so constructed,\nplaced and operated as to give proper protection to a person so\nemployed.\n No liability pursuant to this subdivision for the failure to provide\nprotection to a person so employed shall be imposed on professional\nengineers as provided for in article one hundred forty-five of the\neducation law, architects as provided for in article one hundred\nforty-seven of such law or landscape architects as provided for in\narticle one hundred forty-eight of such law who do not direct or control\nthe work for activities other than planning and design. This exception\nshall not diminish or extinguish any liability of professional engineers\nor architects or landscape architects arising under the common law or\nany other provision of law.\n 2. Scaffolding or staging more than twenty feet from the ground or\nfloor, swung or suspended from an overhead support or erected with\nstationary supports, except scaffolding wholly within the interior of a\nbuilding and covering the entire floor space of any room therein, shall\nhave a safety rail of suitable material properly attached, bolted,\nbraced or otherwise secured, rising at least thirty-four inches above\nthe floor or main portions of such scaffolding or staging and extending\nalong the entire length of the outside and the ends thereof, with only\nsuch openings as may be necessary for the delivery of materials. Such\nscaffolding or staging shall be so fastened as to prevent it from\nswaying from the building or structure.\n 3. All scaffolding shall be so constructed as to bear four times the\nmaximum weight required to be dependent therefrom or placed thereon when\nin use.\n