Senators Call for GAO Report on OSHA's Injury and Illness Auditing

May 1, 2008
In an April 22 letter, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether

In an April 22 letter, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether OSHA effectively ensures that employers are providing accurate workplace injury and illness reports.

Specifically, the senators asked GAO to evaluate OSHA's efforts to ensure that employers are properly recording injuries and illnesses and assess the trends in the number and types of OSHA recordkeeping audits, among other recommendations. They expressed concern that underreporting injury and illness rates has become more prevalent in recent years, and that OSHA's effort to monitor the accuracy of these reports significantly has diminished.

The legislators aren't alone in questioning OSHA's efforts to adequately verify these reported injury and illness rates. In a March 2008 interview with Occupational Hazards, Bob Whitmore, a Department of Labor expert for OSHA recordkeeping litigation since the mid-1980s, claimed the agency has turned a blind eye to underreporting from companies in high-hazard industries.

In addition, a six-part series from the Charlotte Observer on worker safety in the poultry industry pointed out that House of Raeford Farms, a North Carolina-based poultry company, covered up the extent of injuries inside its plants. The Observer claimed it obtained injury logs for four House of Raeford plants and found the company failed to record at least a dozen injuries.

OSHA uses the employer-provided illness and injury information to determine which companies to inspect, a process some safety advocates say creates an incentive for underreporting. For this reason, Murray and Kennedy said OSHA must be more proactive in regulating industries and verifying injury and illness report claims. He and Murray provided GAO with recommendations for a report to assess OSHA's recordkeeping audits.

“I want the GAO to take a good hard look at injury and illness reporting because frankly, it's a system that seems all too easy to game,” Murray said.

Sponsored Recommendations

April 25, 2025
Environmental audits should be a core part of your EHS program regardless of whether you choose to pursue ISO 14001 certification.
April 25, 2025
Streamline EHS inspections. Conduct, track, and manage inspections effortlessly with customizable checklists, real-time reporting, and actionable insights.
April 25, 2025
A winning business case is based on the ROI of the project. The essential first step is determining your EHS costs today.
April 25, 2025
The use of QR codes can greatly simplify observation, near miss, and incident reporting and improve the quantity and quality of data. The more safety information that is collected...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of EHS Today, create an account today!