How to measure success: Is OSHA identifying effecitve worksite health and safety programs or promoting the underreporting of job injuries and illnesses?

The OSH Act charges the Department of Labor with collecting and compiling accurate statistics that reflect the extent and nature of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities. OSHA uses these statistics to target resources and evaluate the effectiveness of its efforts. The accuracy of these statistics, along with OSHA's reliance on employer-kept injury and illness data, has been called into question. In 2008 and 2009 the problems of underreporting of workplace injuries and illnesses were the subject of Congressional investigation and action. A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report in 2009 documented that more than two-thirds of injured or sick workers feared discipline or job loss if they reported job injuries, and over half of occupational health practitioners reported being pressured by employers to downplay or undertreat job injuries to prevent them from being OSHA-recordable. Another 2009 GAO report questioned the adequacy of OSHA's efforts evaluate effectiveness of its Voluntary Protection Programs (touted as workplaces with exemplary safety and health programs and systems), specifically noting OSHA's reliance on employer-kept injury and illness statistics. In September, 2009 OSHA initiated a national emphasis program on recordkeeping to assess the accuracy of injury and illness data recorded by employers. This interactive session will review OSHA programs and practices that use employer data to judge success, discuss continuing impacts of reliance on this data, evaluate OSHA's efforts to address problems of injury and illness underreporting, and identify additional strategies to discourage manipulation of statistics and ensure truly effective worksite health and safety programs.