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Federal safety regulators are launching a national program aimed at catching companies that hide workplace injuries.
The program will send inspectors into more plants to scrutinize injury records and talk to workers. It will target companies in dangerous industries that report unusually low injury rates.
The program comes in response to widespread evidence that the nation's recordkeeping system undercounts how many American workers are injured each year. It's unclear whether the Carolinas, which run their own safety programs, will join the federal crackdown.
Several studies and testimony at recent Congressional hearings detailed how companies commonly fail to report serious workplace injuries. And an Observer investigation last year found one N.C. poultry company underreported injuries, at times dismissing workers' requests to see a doctor, even when they complained of debilitating pain.
Hiding injuries can help companies avoid workplace safety inspections - and allow dangerous conditions to persist. That's why OSHA officials say their new program is so crucial.
"Accurate recordkeeping can really determine whether workers live or die in the workplace, or be healthy or unhealthy...," Jordan Barab, federal OSHA's acting chief, told the Observer. "We want to make sure that OSHA is actually targeting its resources where they need to be targeted."
The program will be mandatory in about half the states - those in which federal OSHA oversees workplace safety. The remaining states, including the Carolinas, run their own workplace safety programs and it will be up to them to decide whether to launch similar efforts. Federal OSHA is "strongly encouraging them to also adopt this," Barab said, but it has no power to force them.
OSHA spokespeople for the Carolinas said their agencies have not decided whether to adopt the new federal approach.
Poultry processing, one of North Carolina's leading industries, will be among the 21 targeted for increased inspections. Others include iron foundries, airlines and nursing care facilities.
OSHA inspectors also will examine company safety programs that could discourage workers from reporting injuries. Some companies offer prizes to employees when plants go for long periods without reporting injuries.
The increased scrutiny of such awards programs troubles Hank Cox, a spokesman for the National Association of Manufacturers.
"Award programs show workers that employers care about safety and it raises awareness," Cox said. "We hope (OSHA) won't take away one of the best motivations."
"We think we've done a pretty good job on safety and health and will continue to do a better job," he said.
Workplace safety advocates praised OSHA's new program but questioned its design.
Tom O'Connor, executive director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, called the program "long overdue."
But he and other experts questioned why OSHA chose to focus on a small number of industries. "I'd hope this would be a first step to a bigger, broader program," said O'Connor, who lives in Chapel Hill.
Bob Whitmore, who formerly directed the injury record-keeping program for the U.S. Labor Department, worries that states running their own workplace safety programs will ignore the federal effort to improve recordkeeping.
"My argument is the cheating is the worst in the state-plan states," said Whitmore. "The good aspect is they're actually trying to address this problem. And they really shouldn't have a hard time finding some big cases. Things have just gotten bad."
Whitmore is fighting to get his Labor Department job back after allegations that he intimidated his co-workers. He denies that and contends OSHA officials want to stop his push for more aggressive enforcement.
For years, OSHA has boasted of falling injury and illness rates. But academic studies have found widespread evidence that many of the injuries in America's workplaces go unreported. Studies in Michigan and Minnesota, for example, concluded the government failed to count one-third of amputations in those states.
An Observer investigation found that N.C.-based House of Raeford Farms failed to record some workplace injuries. The poultry company's 800-worker plant in West Columbia reported no musculoskeletal disorders over four years. Experts say that's inconceivable. MSDs, including carpal tunnel syndrome, are the most common work-related injuries afflicting poultry workers.
The company's Greenville, S.C., plant has boasted of a five-year safety streak with no lost-time injuries. But the plant kept that streak alive by bringing injured employees back to the factory hours after surgery.
House of Raeford says it follows the law and strives to protect workers.
Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, has been studying the reporting of workplace injuries and is expected to release a report this fall.
