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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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The Boston Globe