House Hears How Bush Safety Agency Undercounts Workplace Injuries

by Mike Hall, Jun 20, 2008

Bush administration job safety officials claim the nation’s workplaces are getting safer because the number of recorded injuries and illnesses is declining. But several witnesses told a U.S. House panel yesterday that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) may be counting and reporting as few as one-third of workplace injuries and illnesses.

Without accurate statistics, workers, job safety experts and employers cannot identify and address safety and health hazards and make sure workers receive the appropriate medical treatment.

Bob Whitmore, former chief of the OSHA record-keeping division, told the House Education and Labor Committee:

I contend that the current OSHA injury and illness information is inaccurate, due in part to the wide-scale underreporting by employers and OSHA’s willingness to accept these falsified numbers.

Said committee chairman Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.):

The nation’s workplace injury and illness report card is based on self-reporting by employers. This flawed system gives employers incentives to underreport injuries. The fewer injuries and illnesses an employer reports, the less likely it will be inspected by OSHA and the more likely it will pay lower premiums for workers’ compensation.

According to a committee report released yesterday at the hearing, employers use a number of tactics, including worker intimidation, to keep injuries off the books. Hidden Tragedy: Underreporting of Workplace Injuries Illnesses reveals “workers report widespread intimidation and harassment when reporting injuries and illnesses.”

Reports, testimony and news accounts show that many employers have fired or disciplined workers who report injuries and illnesses or complain about safety hazards. Others have added “demerits” to an employee’s record for reportable injuries or illnesses or for absenteeism that allegedly result from “safety violations.”

Employers have been reported to provide inadequate medical treatment and force workers back to work too soon after serious injuries—sometimes right after surgery—so that their injuries will not be properly recorded.

But what benefit does OSHA derive from looking the other way when employers underreport workplaces injuries and illnesses? Says Whitmore:

There are many reasons why OSHA would accept these numbers, but one important institutional factor has dramatically affected the agency: Steady annual declines in the number of workplace injuries and illnesses make it appear that OSHA is fulfilling its mission.

Miller noted that earlier this year, OSHA chief Edwin Foulke cited record low injury and illness statistics as proof OSHA was doing its job. But Dr. Kenneth D. Rosenman, the chief of the division of occupational and environmental medicine of Michigan State University, says it’s common knowledge among health care and workplace safety professionals that millions of workplace injuries go unreported.

There is no disagreement in the medical literature that an undercount exists and that this undercount is significant….The current system to count workplace injuries and illnesses has been repeatedly studied and shown to have a large undercount.

Despite the long-term and mounting evidence that employer self-reporting of injuries and illnesses is pervasive, Miller charged:

OSHA refuses to recognize that a problem exists. The agency stubbornly refuses to perform thorough audits, which further calls into question the accuracy of the statistics it relies on. We cannot properly evaluate the status of our nation’s workplace safety and health laws if we do not start with accurate information.

Click here to read the testimony of all the witnesses and to watch a video of the hearing.

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