New Program Aims to Make
Workers Compensation Less Challenging
Under Construction News–On most construction sites, a worker who suffers an injury faces a familiar set of challenges. There are medical appointments to schedule. Insurance claims to navigate. Time away from work. And often, a frustrating wait to get the treatment, testing, or benefits needed to begin recovering.
But at New Terminal One—the massive airport project rising at JFK—workers operate under a different system.
If a worker cuts a hand, develops a serious strain, or begins feeling ill during a shift, they don’t have to leave the site and begin navigating the traditional workers’ compensation process. Instead, they can walk directly into an on-site medical facility staffed by physician assistants, receive immediate treatment, and begin the next steps of their care.
If additional testing is needed, appointments can often be arranged within days rather than weeks. If a worker needs a few days off to recover, benefits begin immediately rather than after the traditional waiting period.
The program behind that approach is called Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR. Increasingly used on New York’s largest union construction projects, the system aims to solve a challenge that has long frustrated workers, contractors, and owners alike: how to provide better medical care after an injury while controlling the rising cost of workers’ compensation.
Available only through collective bargaining, ADR for workers’ compensation began in New York with pilot legislation in the late 1990s that was eventually made a permanent feature of the workers’ compensation law. In recent years, ADR has taken hold on some of the largest projects in the city and state.
Written by Brendan Spiegel
at Under Construction News Jun 24, 2026
Published: July 1, 2026.