More than two-thirds of injured or sick workers in a recent survey
feared employer discipline or even losing their jobs if their injuries
were reported, a new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed today.
The GAO surveyed more than 1,000 occupational health practitioners and found:
- More than two-thirds observed worker fear for reporting an injury or illness.
- A third said they were pressured by employers to provide
insufficient treatments to workers to hide or downplay work-related
injuries or illnesses.
- More than half of practitioners said they were pressured by an
employer to downplay an injury or illness so it wouldn’t be reported to
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s official log that
tracks workplace injuries and illnesses.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says
the GAO report confirms what rank-and-file workers, local union safety
activists and workplace safety professionals have long said:
Employer policies and practices that
discourage the reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses are
widespread and are undermining the safety and health of America’s
workers….These destructive and discriminatory practices must be
stopped.
Injury and illness records help OSHA allocate its resources,
accurately target its inspections and evaluate the success of efforts
to improve workplace health and safety. Employers underreport injury
and illness rates because lower rates likely lead to fewer inspections,
improve their competitiveness when bidding for new contracts and lower
their workers’ compensation costs.
The report also confirms a recent survey of local unions by the
AFL-CIO and national unions that found many employer “safety” programs
actually discourage reporting and recording of workplace injuries.
More than half of local union leaders surveyed reported there were
safety incentive programs, injury discipline programs, absenteeism
policies with demerits for injuries and/or post-injury drug testing
policies in their workplaces and that these policies discouraged the
reporting of workplace injuries by workers.
Says Trumka:
Employer policies that discourage the
reporting of injuries not only undermine the completeness and accuracy
of workplace injury data and the Bureau of Labor Statistics surveys.
More importantly, they prevent injured workers from receiving needed
medical care and prevent hazardous conditions that injure workers from
being identified and corrected.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says OSHA will hit hard employers who underreport injuries and illnesses:
Many of the problems identified in the
report are quite alarming, and OSHA will be taking strong enforcement
action where we find underreporting.
The GAO report was requested by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)) and
Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Reps. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Lynn
Woolsey (D-Calif.) The four are the chief sponsors of the Protecting America’s Workers Act, which would give OSHA additional tools to combat underreporting of injuries and illnesses by employers.
Says Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee:
We cannot allow the lack of accurate
information to permit hazardous working conditions to go unaddressed,
putting workers’ health and lives at risk. The GAO report underscores
the need for OSHA to have all the tools they need to eliminate
incentives that result in underreporting injuries.
Harkin, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee. says the underreporting of injuries and illnesses is
“undermining the health and safety of America’s workers.”
If we don’t know the full extent of the
workplace hazards workers face, we cannot fully address these risks. We
need to take steps to require employers to provide a full account of
on-the-job injuries and to protect workers, so they can report
workplace incidents without fear of retaliation.
To read the GAO report, click here.
Cross-posted from AFL-CIO Blog
ran a letter to the editor submitted by CWA Local 2201 Exec. Vice President Richard Hatch. To send in your own letter to the Times Dispatch, email it to letters@timesdispatch.com . Be sure to include your name, address, and phone number for verification purposes.