The work injury and illness data reporting system is inaccurate, the Government Accounting Office finds, and the agency recommends several significant changes to workplace audits by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
According to the GAO, factors affecting the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness data, include disincentives that may discourage workers from reporting work-related injuries and illnesses to their employers and disincentives that may discourage employers from recording them. The GAO says workers may not report a work-related injury or illness because they fear job loss or other disciplinary action, or fear jeopardizing rewards based on having low injury and illness rates. In addition, employers may not record injuries or illnesses because they are afraid of increasing their workers’ compensation costs or jeopardizing their chances of winning contract bids for new work, the GAO reports.
Disincentives for reporting and recording injuries and illnesses can result in pressure on occupational health practitioners from employers or workers to provide insufficient medical treatment that avoids the need to record the injury or illness, GAO says. From its survey of U.S. health practitioners, GAO found that over a third of them had been subjected to such pressure. In addition, stakeholders and the survey results indicated that other factors may affect the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness data, including a lack of understanding of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements by individuals responsible for recording injuries and illnesses.
The GAO recommends the following changes: OSHA inspectors should be required to interview workers during the records audits to obtain information on injuries or illnesses and substitute other workers when those initially selected for interviews are not available; OSHA should minimize the amount of time between the date injuries and illnesses are recorded by employers and the date they are audited by OSHA; OSHA should update the list of high hazard industries used to select worksites for records audits and target inspections, outreach, and technical assistance; and increase education and training provided to employers to help them determine which injuries and illnesses should be recorded under the recordkeeping standards, such as providing assistance to employers via the online tool that OSHA is considering.
