Mass. Gen. Laws » Part I Title XXI Chapter 149
Massachusetts General Laws

Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 129C (2026)

Installation or repair of live electric wires or electrical equipment; assistance; safety equipment; penalty

✓ current as of July 2026
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Section 129C. Whoever being engaged in the business of transmitting electricity or installing or repairing live wires or electrical equipment knowingly permits a journeyman or first class lineman, while on a pole or structure, to work on live wires in excess of seven hundred and fifty volts to ground unless he is assisted on or at the base of each such pole or structure by a journeyman lineman, a fourth-year apprentice, a second class lineman or a lineman having a title commonly accepted as the equivalent of the foregoing shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars. Whoever being engaged in the business of transmitting or distributing electricity or installing or repairing live wires or electrical equipment knowingly permits any of its personnel to work on live wires, electrical equipment or any other energized conductor in excess of fifteen thousand volts phase-to-phase or eight thousand five hundred volts phase-to-ground directly with rubber gloves or in any manner other than with insulated hot line tools in which case the worker shall maintain as a minimum clearance from such wire, equipment or conductor a distance consistent with the minimum requirements of the occupational safety and health act, so-called, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars.

Each violation of this section shall be a separate offense.

For the purpose of this section, a structure shall be deemed to include any type of aerial lift device, including a so-called bucket truck. This section shall not apply to work done by any person who is commonly called a troubleman, while making emergency repairs, locating electrical faults, clearing defective apparatus, or answering service calls.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 3 cases, 1982–2005 · leading case: Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers v. W. Massachusetts Elec. Co., 443 N.E.2d 424 (Mass. App. Ct. 1982).
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Int'l Bhd. of Elec. Workers v. W. Massachusetts Elec. Co., 443 N.E.2d 424 (Mass. App. Ct. 1982). · cites it 5× “The sole question presented was whether the word “structure,” as used in G. L. c. 149, § 129C, inserted by St. 1969, c.”
Massachusetts Elec. Co. v. Reilly, 19 Mass. L. Rptr. 683 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2005). · cites it 7× “The plaintiff, Massachusetts Electric Company (“Mass Electric”), has brought this action seeking a declaratory judgment that G.L.c. 149, §129C, the so-called “Linemen’s Statute,” is preempted by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, 29 U.”
McSweeney v. Sears Dev. Co., 12 Mass. L. Rptr. 217 (Mass. Super. Ct. 2000). “149, §29C and that any grant of summary judgment on the duty to defend issue is premature because disputes of material fact exist as to the cause of the fall and liability.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.