Injuries and illnesses on the job are routinely under reported by both workers and employers, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s auditing arm.
Some workers fail to report job-related injuries out of concern they may fired or disciplined. Others fear such reporting might cause their co-workers to lose rewards that are a part of safety-based incentive programmes, such as, bonuses or steak dinners.
Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who chairs the Senate's Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee, said widespread underreporting is responsible for undermining the health and safety of American workers. Without knowing the full extent of the workplace hazards workers face, the risks cannot be fully addressed, he said.
Of more than 1,000 occupational health practitioners surveyed by the GAO, more than two thirds reported that workers were afraid of discipline or termination for reporting injuries; 53% reported that they were pressured by company officials to downplay injuries; and more than one-third were asked by company officials to withhold necessary medical treatment to injured workers so the injury wouldn’t be recorded on the OSHA log.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said it would require its inspectors in the future to interview employees during all audits to check the accuracy of employer-provided injury data.
Harkin and other lawmakers requested the GAO report because they were skeptical of numbers that have shown the rate of workplace injuries and illnesses declining between 1992 and 2007.
