Secrets, lies, and worker safety - The Boston Globe

Secrets, lies, and worker safety - The Boston Globe
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GLOBE EDITORIAL
Secrets, lies, and worker safety
December 26, 2009

EACH YEAR, scaffolding collapses, trench cave-ins, and other workplace accidents take the lives of more than 5,000 Americans. Federal safety regulators could do a better job of heading off unsafe conditions if they had better data on non-fatal injuries that signal underlying problems. Unfortunately, it is all too common for employers - and in some cases employees themselves - to conceal the seriousness of injuries, leaving inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the dark.

This is the conclusion of a report by the Government Accountability Office. It found that many companies did not report injuries or illnesses because they feared increasing their workers’ compensation costs or losing out on contracts. Workers kept silent about injuries, the report said, because they feared being fired or disciplined or hurting their work unit’s chance of winning a bonus or company-paid dinner.

Under the law, companies with more than 10 workers must report injuries that cause lost work time or require treatment beyond first aid. In a survey of occupational health practitioners, the GAO found that more than a third reported being pressured to provide insufficient medical treatment to minimize work-related injuries or illnesses. The GAO report also cited academic studies that found that OSHA data missed two-thirds of all job injuries or illnesses.

OSHA has agreed to interview workers directly when auditing employer-provided injury data, and to minimize any delay between when employers report injuries and audits occur. Improvements in workplace safety would be greater if both companies and their employees would come forward with injury information more reliably - and not wait for OSHA to correct unsafe conditions.



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