crossposted from unbossed
A couple months ago, we reported that the Bush Administration had fudged the figures on mining injuries in order to claim that they were far worse under Bill Clinton. Untrue, of course. February 06, 2008 Mining Disasters - Whose Fault? MSHA's Stickler Blames Bill Clinton. Now a new report shows that on the job deaths for 2006 were worse than claimed.
The revised figures show that deaths were 2% higher than originally reported.
Here is the summary of key changes:
• The revised fatality total for 2006 represents a 2 percent increase over the final 2005 total. The preliminary results released in August 2007 showed a decline in the number of cases. The higher fatality rate resulting from the revision indicates that the fatal work injury rate in 2006 was unchanged from the 2005 fatality rate.
• Fatal work injuries incurred by Hispanic or Latino workers rose by 53 cases from the preliminary figure, bringing the total number for that worker group to 990 fatal work injuries.
The higher number of fatal work injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers also pushed the rate of fatal injury for that worker group to 5.0 per 100,000 employed workers, up from the previously reported rate of 4.7 per 100,000 employed workers for 2006. In 2005, 923 Hispanic workers were fatally injured on the job and the rate of fatal injury among Hispanic workers in 2005 was 4.9 per 100,000 employed workers.
• The number of fatal work injuries involving foreign-born workers increased from 997 cases to 1,046 cases as a result of the updates. Of the 1,046 cases involving foreign-born workers, 667 involved Hispanic or Latino workers. Both the foreign-born total and the Hispanic or Latino foreign-born total were new highs for the series.
• Fatal occupational injuries in California increased by 89 cases from the preliminary figure. As a result of the increase, California surpassed Texas as the State with the highest number of fatal work injuries in 2006. The totals for Oregon (up by 15), Georgia (9), and Florida (5) also increased. Overall, 15 States revised the counts upward as a result of the update process.
• In terms of occupations, the largest revision in fatalities was in transportation and material moving occupations (up by 38 fatalities), followed by construction and extraction occupations (15 fatalities).
• The industry sectors reporting the largest increases in fatal work injuries due to updates were transportation and warehousing (28 new cases), government (19), construction (13), and accommodation and food services (12).
Additional information may be found at this link.
So, here we are on Workers Memorial Day
A grim one, thanks to the Bush Administration, far grimmer than it needed to be.
Here is the AFL-CIO observance of Workers Memorial Day with its annual report on workplace fatalities, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect.
The 2008 report concludes:
Very simply, workers need more job safety and health protection. Seven years of inaction and neglect by the Bush Administration on major hazards and increased emphasis on employer assistance and voluntary compliance has come at the expense of worker safety and health. The next administration must restore the commitment to protecting workers and provide strong leadership at both OSHA and MSHA.
The OSHAct needs to be strengthened to make it easier to issue safety and health standards and to make the civil and criminal penalties for violating the law tougher. Workers need to be given a real voice in the workplace and real rights to participate in safety and health as part of a comprehensive safety program to identify and correct hazards. Coverage should be extended to the millions of workers who fall outside the Act’s protection.
Immediate action is needed to fully implement the provisions of the MINER Act to protect miners in the event of an emergency and to increase penalties for serious and repeated violations. Further improvements to strengthen the mine act are needed to prohibit dangerous practices like the use of belt air for coal mine ventilation and prevent further catastrophes. The serious safety and health problems, and increased risk of fatalities and injuries, faced by Hispanic and immigrant workers must be given increased attention.
An OSHA standard still is needed to protect workers from ergonomic hazards and crippling repetitive strain injuries and back injuries, which continue to represent the most significant jobsafety problem in the nation. Standards on other major hazards, including silica, diacetyl and combustible dust, should be issued promptly.
The widespread problem of injury underreporting must be addressed and employer policies and practices that discourage the reporting of injuries through discipline or other means must be prohibited. OSHA needs to keep up with new hazards that face workers as workplaces and the nature of work change. Hazardous conditions in the service sector and in retail trade need greater attention.
OSHA and MSHA need additional funding to develop and enforce standards and to expand worker safety and health training. Similarly, additional funds are needed for NIOSH to support enhanced research on safety and health problems.
Only with these real reforms and improvements in law will the promise of a safe job for all of America’s workers finally be fulfilled.
On the better workplace safety front, last week, Senators Patty Murray and Edward Kennedy sent a letter to the GAO requesting it investigate under-reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses:
April 22, 2008
Gene Dodaro
Acting Comptroller General
U.S. General Accounting Office
441 G Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20548
Dear Mr. Dodaro:
The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is responsible for protecting the safety and health of workers by ensuring that the provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 that require employers to provide safe, healthy workplaces for their workers are met. OSHA’s efforts include developing regulations and standards, including recordkeeping requirements for employers; working with employers to help them provide safe and healthy working conditions; and inspecting worksites to ensure compliance with these requirements. One of OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements is for employers to maintain logs of injuries and illnesses sustained by workers.
Because OSHA uses the information on injuries and illnesses to target employer worksites with high injury and illness rates for inspection, there is a clear incentive for employers to underreport such injuries and illnesses. We are concerned that, in recent years, the incidence of underreporting has become more widespread and that OSHA’s efforts to ensure that employers are recording injuries and illnesses as required have declined. For example, OSHA currently conducts few recordkeeping audits designed to ensure that injuries and illnesses are being properly recorded. This is of particular concern because the Department of Labor frequently points to the decline in injury and illness rates as evidence of the effectiveness of OSHA’s work.
We would like GAO to review OSHA’s efforts to ensure that employers are reporting injuries and illnesses as required. Specially, we would like you to (1) evaluate OSHA’s efforts to ensure that employers are properly recording injuries and illnesses; (2) assess the trends in the number and types of recordkeeping audits and targeted inspections OSHA has conducted; (3) provide information on any studies or research available on the extent to which employers underreport injuries and illnesses; (4) conduct a survey of occupational physicians in professional associations such as the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) who have expressed concerns about employer underreporting; and (5) provide suggestions on how to improve OSHA’s efforts.
Sincerely,
Patty Murray
U.S. Senator
Edward M. Kennedy
U.S. Senator