From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: OSHA's Efforts to Ensure Employers Report Job Related
Injuries and Illness

Description: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
collects data from employers about injuries and illness in order to
provide oversight of industries, as well as to improve safety policies
for workers. However, OSHA officials told GAO that a high number of
employers may not have reported this data in 2019. We talk with GAO's
Tom Costa to find out more.

Related GAO Work: GAO-21-122, Workplace Safety and Health: Actions
Needed to Improve Reporting of Summary Injury and Illness Data

Released: February 2021 

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[Tom Costa:] More than half the businesses are not submitting required
injury and illness data. OSHA's efforts to encourage or enforce this
requirement are really just too limited.

[Holly Hobbs:] Hi, and welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for
news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm
Holly Hobbs. About 3.5 million workers suffered job-related injuries or
illness in 2018. Additionally, more than 5,000 workers died from their
injuries that same year. The Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, or OSHA, collects data from employers about injuries and
illness in order to provide oversight of industries, as well as to
improve safety policies for workers. However, OSHA officials told GAO
that a high number of employers may not have reported this data in 2019.
Today, we talk with Tom Costa--an expert on worker safety and health
issues, and an acting director in our Education Workforce and Income
Security Team--about his new report on OSHA's efforts to obtain and use
this data. Thank you for joining me, Tom.

[Tom Costa:] Thanks for having me, Holly.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, Tom, what are the requirements for employers to
report on job-related injuries and illness?

[Tom Costa:] Well, in general if an employer has more than 10 employees
and is not part of a low risk industry like office workers or something
like that, they must record all job-related injuries and illnesses. And
in 2017, OSHA began requiring smaller employers in high-risk
industries--like waste collection and hospitals--and all larger
employers to report summary injury and illness data electronically on an
annual basis.

[Holly Hobbs:] And do we know about how many employers failed to report
these incidents?

[Tom Costa:] So we estimate it at about 459,000 establishments were
required to report this summary injury and illness data, but only about
212,000 did. So that means that about 54% didn't report and only 46%
did.

[Holly Hobbs:] And how does this compare with other years we looked at?

[Tom Costa:] So, we looked at 2016 to 2018 and in each year, although
the compliance rate increased, which is a good thing, it never broke
50%. So in 2016 it was 35%, in 2017 it went up to 42%, and then in 2018,
46%.

[Holly Hobbs:] So how does OSHA know when businesses fail to submit
injury and illness reports?

[Tom Costa:] OSHA gets the names of establishments that meet the annual
reporting requirement from a data company and it matches it with
establishments that have already submitted their data to identify those
that haven't. So at the time of our work, OSHA determined that hundreds
of thousands of establishments that were required to report may not have
done so based on that matching. For example, they identified about
224,000 that didn't submit in 2018 and 220,000 that may not have
submitted in 2019.

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[Holly Hobbs:] So, it sounds like OSHA has an important role in assuring
the safe and healthful conditions of the nation's workforce. And it does
this by collecting and analyzing reports of injury and illness from
employers, but that a large number of employers are not reporting
incidents. Tom, what does OSHA do when they discover employers didn't
report incidents?

[Tom Costa:] OSHA sends reminder postcards asking employers to submit
their injury and illness data. However, they sent the postcards to fewer
than 30,000 employers each year. And they didn't conduct any follow-up
after sending the cards to see if the employers complied. In addition,
when OSHA conducts an onsite inspection, it will issue citations if it
determines an employer hasn't submitted the data. Again, however, OSHA
only cited 255 establishments for not reporting between December 2017
and September 2019. So that's over more than a year long period.

[Holly Hobbs:] Do we know why they didn't contact more employers?

[Tom Costa:] OSHA said that they didn't have the resources necessarily
to do so, but honestly we don't know exactly why there wasn't as much
follow-up as we might have expected or hoped for.

[Holly Hobbs:] So, why is it important that employers report job-related
illnesses and injuries?

[Tom Costa:] OSHA uses this data to help select establishments with
higher injury and illness rates for a comprehensive inspection. If an
employer doesn't submit their data, it's unlikely that they'll be
selected. This, coupled with the fact that very few employers receive a
citation, creates a potential incentive for employers not to report. And
although OSHA does inspect some establishments that it identifies as
being non-responders, it may not be enough to counteract this potential
incentive. So, for example, in Fiscal year 2019, OSHA selected 3,022
establishments for possible inspection. It had enough time and resources
to do a comprehensive inspection of only 727 of them. However, because
OSHA only receives data on less than 50% of the establishments that
should be reporting, the agency can't really know whether it's targeting
its comprehensive inspections to those with the highest injury and
illness rates, which is really the purpose of the program.

[Holly Hobbs:] It seems like having access to this data or having
complete data would be particularly important during a pandemic. Do we
know anything about how OSHA's handling issues with response rates or
reporting during COVID-19?

[Tom Costa:] So, employers aren't required to report their summary data
until March of the following year. So, 2020 data that will cover the
pandemic will be due this March. All employers are required to report
job-related deaths within 8 hours and hospitalizations within 24 hours,
including those that are COVID related. Also, it takes at least 2 days
after exposure for COVID symptoms to show up so OSHA's getting some
information from some employers. They may not be getting complete
information on hospitalizations and deaths and that's likely limiting
their ability to ensure a safe workplace. Right now we have ongoing work
looking into OSHA's efforts during the pandemic and some of our findings
will also be reported in GAO's January CARES Act report.

[Holly Hobbs:] Did we make any recommendations to OSHA that would help
them encourage reporting?

[Tom Costa:] Yes. Yes, we did. We recommended that OSHA look at its
current procedures for ensuring that employers electronically report
their injury and illness data, and implement a plan to address any
shortcoming. Specifically we ask that they address both how OSHA can
encourage employers to comply with this requirement and cite for
noncompliant. And we're pleased OSHA agreed to take action on our
recommendation.

[Holly Hobbs:] And last question, Tom. What's the bottom line of this
report?

[Tom Costa:] More than half the businesses are not submitting required
annual injury and illness data and OSHA's efforts to encourage or
enforce this requirement are really just too limited. OSHA needs the
data so that it knows which establishments have the highest injury and
illness rates so it can address unsafe working conditions and help keep
American workers safe.

[Holly Hobbs:]  That was GAO's Tom Costa, talking about a new report
that looks at the data OSHA collects on workplace illnesses and
injuries. Thank you for your time, Tom.

[Tom Costa:] Thanks so much for having me, Holly. I really appreciate
it.

[Holly Hobbs:] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To
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For more from the Congressional Watchdog, the U.S. Government
Accountability Office, visit us at GAO.gov.

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