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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?
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.
Rather, what employer is going to hire someone who has made a claim in the past?
The information will most certainly not identify individuals.
Corrective actions taken is entirely proper. OSHA and MSHA do not exist to penalize companies but to implement and enforce a standard that makes working there relatively safe. If a boss orders you to do something that is against OSHA policies, you have the ability to personally sue them. OSHA has the ability to ensure they do not do it again which can mean corrective action like retraining employees and supervisors or using different safety equipment.
Cash settlements and fines should be reserved for repetitive violations. And remember, regardless of OSHA fines or action, the employee retains a right to recover damages independent of OSHA. In fact, OSHA makes it easier because their regulation is the de facto industry minimum.
Much the same in Canada, where agencies which used to protect workers have been de-fanged and de-toothed pretty effectively. For the most part anything resembling Worker's Compensation is primarily a tool that prevents workers from suing employers, not something that protects them.
And even then, there is rampant "You're not an employee, you're contractor, and don't even think about employment insurance or contributions to your pension."
The end result is stuff like guys working three stories up, on the roof, in the rain, with no safety gear of any sort.
Workers won't file a complaint because they would be fired immediately. Or more to the point, their "not an employee" contract would be ended immediately. The company knows full well that without a complaint there is zero chance that any inspector will visit the job site. Especially after years of cut-backs which eliminated half of the people who used to do that job.
The bottom line with safety has to be frequent inspections, big fat fines, and a rapid escalation of fines for repeated violations.
Three Squirrels
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.