Romanucci & Blandin was pleased to receive word that the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor is investigating the U.S. Department of Labor’s longstanding failure to collect accurate data on workplace injuries and illnesses. Testimony presented to the committee this week in Washington calls into question the agency’s claims that workplaces are getting safer and healthier.

“Without accurate injury and illness statistics, employers and workers are unable to identify and address safety and health hazards, and policymakers are unable to assess the state of workplace safety in this country,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the committee. “We simply must not allow a lack of information to permit hazardous working conditions to go unaddressed, putting workers’ limbs and lives at risk.”

Both employers and OSHA have incentives to report and use faulty data. The fewer injuries and illnesses an employer reports, the less likely the employer will be inspected by OSHA and the more likely it will pay lower workers’ compensation premiums.

“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 Bob Whitmore, former chief of the OSHA recordkeeping division. “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.”

OSHA uses workplace injury and illness statistics reported by employers, in part, to target inspections, evaluate its performance, and to determine when new health and safety standards may be needed. When OSHA uses flawed data to make these determinations, workplace safety suffers, according to testimony from Dr. Robert McLellen, the immediate past president of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

“Society’s interest in preventing work-related injuries and illnesses is foiled when our picture of the true burden of work-related injuries and illnesses is distorted,” said McLellen. “We find anecdotal examples of distorted reporting troubling, suggesting a process and a system in need of review because of the potential for causing both medical harm and flawed statistical results.”

A.C. Span, a worker from Phoenix, described how his former employer discouraged him from reporting injuries. His employer used a system of disciplinary points in which workers would receive points if they missed work, performed poorly, or even sustained an injury while on the job. As workers received more points, their salaries would be decreased and they would be subject to dismissal.

“Reporting illnesses or injuries can cause you to be unpopular with your co-workers, get disciplinary points, have your salary reduced and ultimately lose your job,” said Span, a former Bashas’ food distribution worker. “The message was clear – don’t report, don’t talk, just keep your mouth shut or else.”

“There is no disagreement in the medical literature that an undercount exists and that this undercount is significant,” said Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, chief of the occupational and environmental medicine division of Michigan State University.

As much as 69 percent of all injuries and illnesses may never be reported to OSHA. An Education and Labor Committee staff report released this week reviews the extent of the underreporting problem and offers explanations for it.