OSHA Leader Visits Northeast Ohio, Stresses Transparency

By Dan Shingler

The nation's top workplace safety official was in town last week and said the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration soon will make public reports of workplace accidents — and already this year has begun to implement new reporting requirements for serious accidents. 

But he is far from satisfied that employers are alerting OSHA to all of the accidents they are required to report under new federal regulations that went into effect Jan. 1.

“We think we're only getting a very small portion of the accidents that should be reported,” said Dr. David Michaels, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health who is in charge of OSHA. 

That's despite the fact that, across the country, employers already reported more than 3,800 accidents, in which a worker was seriously injured, between Jan. 1 and about April 24, Michaels said. 

He was in Cleveland last Tuesday, April 28, to speak to both a City Club audience and to members of workplace safety training classes being held in Middleburg Heights at Safety Controls Technology. That organization, more commonly known as SCT, is one of only 25 across the nation approved to teach OSHA's safety courses. 

The new rules require employers to report any injury that requires an employee to be hospitalized (beyond a simple visit to the emergency room), or that results in the loss of a limb or eye. Michaels told workers that if they knew their employer was not reporting such accidents, they should not hesitate to call OSHA themselves. 

While nearly 4,000 such accidents in about four months sounds like a lot, Michaels says that by looking at things like past history, workers' compensation claims and other data, OSHA knows there are many more. 

“We're getting a small percentage, well less than half. ... We know that from numerous studies that have been done,” Michaels said. 

For now, employers have a chance to play catch up and report accidents that fall under the new rules before OSHA finds out and comes to them, possibly with a fine. 

“We will eventually issue fines against employers who have failed to report, but we're not there yet,” Michaels said. 

Later this year, OSHA also will do something else new — making accident reports public. Michaels said his agency will begin making the reports public, both as a way to nudge employers with safety issues toward addressing them and as a way to recognize employers who take steps to provide a safe workplace. 

OSHA is finalizing how it will format and release the information, but will begin the practice “soon” — sometime later this year, Michaels said.