NY Times Work-Related Injuries Underreported

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Work-Related Injuries Underreported

By _STEVEN GREENHOUSE_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/steven_greenhouse/\

index.html?inline=nyt-per)

Published: November 16, 2009

Employers and workers routinely underreport work-related injuries and

illnesses, calling into question the accuracy of nationwide data that the

_Occupational Safety and Health Administration_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/o/occupationa\

l_safety_and_health_administrat

ion/index.html?inline=nyt-org) compiles each year, the _Government

Accountability Office_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/g/government_\

accountability_office/index.html?inline=nyt-org)

_said_

(http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/GAO-OSHA-200910.pdf)

Monday.

The report, by the G.A.O., the auditing arm of Congress, said many

employers did not report workplace injuries and illnesses for fear of

increasing

their workers’ compensation costs or hurting their chances of winning

contracts.

The report also said workers did not report job-related injuries because

they feared being fired or disciplined and worried that their co-workers

might lose rewards, like bonuses or steak dinners, as part of safety-based

incentive programs.

“The widespread underreporting so clearly documented in this report is

undermining the health and safety of American workers,†said Senator _Tom

Harkin_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/tom_harkin/index.h\

tml?inline=nyt-per) , Democrat of Iowa and chairman of the Health,

Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “If we don’t know the full extent

of the workplace hazards workers face, we cannot fully address these risks.â€

Mr. Harkin was one of the Congressional leaders who requested the report.

In response to the report, which examined OSHA’s audits from 2005 to 2007,

the safety administration said it would adopt the accountability office’s

recommendations, which include requiring inspectors to interview employees

during all audits to check the accuracy of employer-provided injury data.

The accountability office noted that the rate of workplace injuries — there

were 4 million in 2007, including 5,600 fatalities — has declined fairly

steadily since 1992, which OSHA attributed to improvements in workplace

safety and the decline in the number of manufacturing jobs.

But the G.A.O. report cited several academic studies that found that OSHA

data failed to include up to two-thirds of all workplace injuries and

illnesses.

The report noted that because of OSHA’s “sole reliance on

employer-reported injury and illness data†in one of its major surveys,

“some academic

studies have reported that the survey may undercount the total number of

workplace injuries and illnesses.â€

The accountability office also found that more than a third of the

occupational health practitioners it surveyed said that employers or workers had

pressured them to provide insufficient medical treatment to hide or play down

work-related injuries or illnesses.

The safety and health administration requires employers with more than 10

workers to record every work-related injury or illness that results in lost

work time or medical treatment other than first aid. Some occupational

health practitioners say that to avoid recording an injury, some employers will

try to limit treatment for a serious injury to just first aid.

In other cases, the practitioners said, employers might seek alternative

diagnoses if the initial diagnosis would result in a recordable injury or

illness.

One manager took an injured worker to several medical providers until the

manager found one who would certify that treatment required only first aid,

thus making it an injury that did not have to be recorded, one practitioner

told researchers, according to the report. Many employers fear that

reporting numerous injuries will prompt a full-scale OSHA inspection.

The accountability office said that 53 percent of health practitioners had

reported experiencing pressure from company officials to play down injuries

or illnesses, and that 47 percent had reported experiencing this pressure

from workers.

“This report confirms that when it comes to the documenting of workplace

injuries, we can’t just take employers at their word,†said Senator _Patty

Murray_

(http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/patty_murray/index\

..html?inline=nyt-per) , Democrat of Washington and chairwoman of

the Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. “The system, to this

point, has been all too easy to game.â€

According to the G.A.O. report, 67 percent of the 1,187 occupational health

practitioners surveyed had reported observing worker fear of disciplinary

action for reporting an injury or illness, and 46 percent said this fear

had some impact on the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness records.

One reason workers fail to report injuries, the report said, was that their

employers required drug testing after incidents resulting in reported

injuries or illnesses, regardless of any evidence of drug use.

The report also questioned employers’ safety incentive programs, which

reward workers when their worksites have few recordable injuries or illnesses.

While these programs can promote safe behavior, the report said

three-quarters of health practitioners said they believed that workers sometimes

avoided reporting work-related injuries and illnesses as a result of these

programs because they feared that doing so would cause them or their co-workers

to miss the chance of winning prizes.

Correction: November 16, 2009

A previous version of this article gave an incorrect name for the

Government Accountability Office.