GAO Issues New Report on Underreporting of Workplace Injuries

errorIn a survey of 504 occupational health practitioners (including company doctors & nurses), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that the government has not done enough to ensure that the reporting has been accurate.

The findings include:

  • More than 33% of the doctors/nurses said they were pressured to provide insufficient treatment so that the job-related injuries did not show up on injury logs.
  • More than 50% of the doctors/nurses said they were pressured from upper management to downplay injuries & illnesses.
  • More than 65% of the doctors/nurses said they knew of employees who would not report injuries & illnesses to avoid disciplinary measures.

The findings were further complicated by the fact that employees are often rewarded for maintaining “safe-work” environment for long periods of time, thereby reducing reporting.

The GAO is recommending that the Secretary of Labor direct OSHA to do the following:

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Calculators: Injury and Illness Incidence Rate & DART

Want to calculate your Injury and Illness Incidence rate (I&I) and/or your Days, Away, Restrictions and Transfers (DART) rate? Use OHShub.com’s Incidence Rate and DART Rate calculator (Excel spreadsheet format) to determine your rates.

Download the Calculator HERE for use on your computer:Incidence Rate and DART Rate Calculator (1117)

Sample Screenshot IR & [...]

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OSHA NEP: Under Recorded Injuries and Illnesses

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Effective September 30, 2009, OSHA has begun a new National Emphasis Program (NEP) for inspecting the accuracy
of the Occupational Injury and Illness Recording and Reporting Requirements for low rate establishments in selected industries.

OSHA postulates the most likely places where under-recorded injuries and illnesses may exist
would be low rate establishments operating in historically high rate industries. The NEP will
pilot test OSHA’s ability to effectively target establishments to identify under-recording of
occupational injuries and illnesses.

This NEP is one component of OSHA’s effort to address the issue of inaccurate recording of
occupational injuries and illnesses. In addition to this NEP, OSHA will address the issue through
comprehensive training of its compliance staff to identify and correct violations of the
recordkeeping regulation. OSHA will also develop other enforcement and quality assurance
programs to address the recordkeeping issue in establishments and industries outside the scope of
this NEP (e.g., the construction industry, Partnerships, VPP and SHARP establishments).

Industries included have a DART (days away, restrictions and transfers – based on the 200,000 hour benchmark) rate of 5.7 to 8.1 and include:

  • Animal slaughtering
  • Scheduled passenger air transportation
  • Steel foundries (except investment)
  • Other nonferrous foundries (except die-casting)
  • Concrete pipe manufacturing
  • Soft drink manufacturing
  • Couriers
  • Manufactured home (mobile home) manufacturing
  • Rolling mill machinery and equipment manufacturing
  • Iron foundries

    • Continue reading OSHA NEP: Under Recorded Injuries and Illnesses

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