229566 Workers' compensation and occupational injury and illness experience for New York State government agency workers 2007 - 2009

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 5:00 PM - 5:15 PM

Jonathan Rosen, MS, CIH , Health and Safety Department, NYS PEF, Albany, NY
Matt London, MS , Health and Safety Department, NYS PEF, Albany, NY
                    
New York State public employee labor unions worked in coalition with other occupational safety and health advocates for legislation which requires the New York State Department of Civil Service to issue an annual report on State Agency workers' compensation experience. The most recent report, covering April 2008 – March 2009, includes the number of cases, case rates, lost time cases, lost time case rates, and compensation and medical costs, by NYS agency. Additionally, job title-specific risks and injury causes are described. Eight state agencies, accounting for 68% of state government employment, had 96.5% of the workers' compensation cases. The report is a valuable tool in designing and evaluating health and safety programs in state agencies. The high rates of compensable injuries described provide further evidence of the need for OSHA coverage to be extended nationwide to all public employees.

Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadership
Occupational health and safety
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Identify public sector jobs that have a significant risk of occupational injury or illness. Discuss ways to use workers' compensation data for prevention.

Keywords: Occupational Safety, Workers' Compensation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: MS in Industrial Health, Certified Industrial Hygienest with 20 years experience in public sector occupational health and safety
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4376.0: Occupational injuries: understudied workforces and industries