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OSHA Wants To Post All Workplace Injury Reports Online
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "AP reports that federal safety regulators are proposing major changes in workplace reporting rules that would require large companies to file injury and illness reports electronically so they can be posted online and made available to the public. 'Public posting of workplace illness and injury information will nudge employers to better identify and eliminate hazards,' says OSHA head David Michaels. OSHA says the change is in line with President Barack Obama's initiative to increase public access to government data. The plan would require companies with more than 250 employees to submit the data electronically on a quarterly basis. That would cover about 38,000 American companies, says Michaels. Under current rules, employers are required to post annual summaries of injury and illness reports in a common area where they can be seen by employees. While the OSHA web site contains raw numbers about incidents at certain workplaces, it doesn't describe what the injury was or how it occurred. OSHA will hold a public meeting on the proposed rule on January 9 in Washington and is accepting public comments for 90 days, until February 6, 2014. Not everyone is enamored of the change. 'Just because you have an injury, it does not mean there was employer fault,' says Marc Freedman, executive director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 'Reporting the injury records does not tell the full story of the company.' Some company safety professionals and researchers say they are concerned that the new proposal might unintentionally create an under-reporting problem. Companies may feel pressure to report lower injury numbers if they know they will be made public."
"OSHA says the change is in line with President Barack Obama's initiative to increase public access to government data."
Or is it company data that is collected by the government?
Rather, what employer is going to hire someone who has made a claim in the past?
No, more like if you trip and fall down perfectly normal stairs while running down them, it's not really your employer's fault just because the stairs happened to be in their office.
start reporting your employees as independent contractors. Not only do you get to injur and maim people without any repercussions, but you can hire illegal immigrants and not face any of the state-by-state penalties for doing so. Wal-Mart does this routinely with its cleaning crews.
the fact is OSHA has been a toothless entity for a decade or so anyhow. states like texas and georgia barely have one, and when it enforces violations they typically become 'corrective action taken' events instead of cash out of pocket citations.
Good people go to bed earlier.
ouch!
Hurt yourself laughing?
The NSA is probably only a few doors from OSHA <_<
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Or something I know specifically that happened. When I was younger I worked as a line cook at a restaurant. One day a dishwasher was bringing plated to the line and stacked them so high, he couldn't see in front of himself as he walked. He stepped on a dolly used to move glassware to the front of the house and fell over busting most of the plates and almost severing his middle finger on his right hand completely off. It was literally hanging by a thread of flesh.
Needless to say, they were able to re-attache his finger but one of the bosses told another which I over heard that the only reason he wasn't fired and the medical challenged is because he tried to save the plates instead of dropping them to save himself. This is clearly a case of an employee intentionally not being safe which caused a serious accident. It went against the company I worked for because no one fought the claims against it. While I'm not sure I agree with the companies being able to fight accident claims of workers on the job, I'm betting a lot more of them might do so in the future if they are made public and so easily accessible.
Funny joke but the reality is that if you provide incentives for companies to reduce their full time workforce (like Obamacare) don't be surprised when they do that.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
That's a good way to do it, take a specific example.
IANAL but I've talked to lawyers and OSHA inspectors.
First, workplace accidents aren't personal injury cases. They're no-fault. It's like employers make a deal with employees.
When employees are injured on the job, the employer and his mandatory insurance are responsible for paying the medical costs, the lost earnings, and if there's a permanent disability, the cost of the disability in lost earnings for the rest of his life. Fault doesn't enter into it. Even if the employee was stupid and irresponsible, the employer is responsible for covering the costs of his injury.
In return, the employer doesn't have any liability to the employee for personal injury. For example, a lawyer told me about an employment case she handled where a McDonald's employee was burned severely over a large area of his skin by grease spilling on him, the first day on the job. If that were a personal injury case, the employee would have gotten a lot of money. But because it was an employment case, he was only entitled to medical expenses and lost earnings.
So not paying his medical expenses isn't an option. It doesn't matter whether he was at fault or stupid. If he was injured on the job, the employer has to pay for it. In exchange, the employee can't sue them for personal injury.
The other issue is that when you have an injury, everybody is responsible. The employee is responsible for being stupid, but the employer is responsible for not maintaining a safe workplace, which includes training and supervising their employees. But employees don't have to pay the costs of the consequences of their unsafe actions. Employers do.
No, more like if you trip and fall down perfectly normal stairs while running down them, it's not really your employer's fault just because the stairs happened to be in their office.
No, under OSHA regulations, and under any safe workplace policies (including policies imposed by the insurance companies), the employer has an obligation to provide a safe workplace.
That includes training and supervision.
The employer has an obligation to make sure employees aren't running down stairs. Employers can fire employees who unsafely run down stairs.
But if the employer lets an employee run down stairs on his employer's time, and the employee falls and hurts himself, the employer is responsible for that injury.
Well you evidently haven't had to file a workman's comp claim at a real employer (ie not fast food or walmart). You are not "fired" when on workman's comp or even if you have to take FMLA or use a long term disability plan (cause your injury wasn't at work). You are still an employee so no gaps will show until you accept Gov disability or your long term disability plan runs out or you guys make a settlement. I know this first hand- the guy sitting next to me is currently suing our employer for laying him off while on workman's comp. He is going to win if they take it to court but our company always settles so either way, pay day.
I've done reporting work at a state health department. In general, information was suppressed if it was to small of a population (incident population or rate population). In general, a population under 50 is considered too small to report publicly without exposing protected health information (PHI). With accident records, you population is employees. Suppressing site information may help, but it also reduces the effectiveness. It's also likely that most small businesses would never have a large enough population. Most likely, the results would need to be aggregated over a long period of time. I don't think this works under the law as it currently stands.
The rest of what you said is also true, but doesn't need specifically addressed. The lawsuits I am speaking of is not a general liability type of suit, it is where a company acted illegally in ignoring safety or some other regulation which resulted in the employee's injury or death. An example might be a construction worker was ordered to go on top of a pitched roof in the middle of winter with ice and snow on it without the proper safety equipment or else face termination- which resulted in his or her injury or death.
Most work place accidents are no fault and worker's comp is supposed to cover medical costs and compensate for some lost wages. But when the employer acts in an intentional or egregious conduct, you sometimes have the ability to go outside the worker's comp system. This has generally always been the case but varies from state to state insomuch as what the bar is for intentional or egregious conduct. The state may have the bar so high that it is almost impossible to be a practical remedy but those states generally fine excessively and hold employer's criminally liable for violations.
Here are a few resources that show a little more details on the potential for lawsuits. Note, these are not simple accidents, they all involve the employer doing something intentionally unsafe without regard to safety or established protocols.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/workplace-injury-lawsuit-sue-30334.html
http://www.coleschotz.com/?t=40&an=14486&format=xml&p=5198
http://www.laffeybuccikent.com/can-an-employee-sue-an-employer-for-a-work-accident-in-pennsylvania/
And here is a couple about employers going to jail
http://www.thehortongroup.com/Insurance_Library/Tell_A_Tale__Go_to_Jail
http://safety.blr.com/workplace-safety-news/safety-administration/workplace-accidents/CalOSHA-Referral-Leads-to-Fines-Jail-Time-for-Cont/
http://www.fpcwlaw.com/blog/2013/09/workplace-fatalities-lead-to-jail-time-for-executive.shtml