The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) exists to help keep workers safe while on the job. They publish requirements for employers, conduct research and surveys, and investigate unsafe practices. They recently began tracking data on workplace injuries, requiring all employers to report serious injuries that lead to hospitalization, amputation, and eye loss within 24 hours of the event. This is a new reporting requirement as of 2015. Prior to that, employers were only required to report fatalities.
A recent report from OSHA shows that in 2015, more than 7,600 employees were hospitalized following a workplace injury. More than 2,600 workers suffered amputations. These numbers are quite high, but even still OSHA suspects that roughly half of all workplace injuries are going unreported. This is largely due to the self-reporting nature of injury tracking. Some employers may not be aware that they are not required to report more than just fatalities, others may be down-playing the injuries their employees receive, and others still may be trying to hid unsafe conditions in their industries.
If you or a loved one are injured at work and do not feel as if your employer is taking appropriate steps to either accommodate your injury or to report your injury, then it is your prerogative to take matters into your own hands. Call us for representation. We can help you to find the medical treatment that will work best for you. We can also help you to navigate reporting your injury, and going after your employer if the injury was caused by unsafe conditions. Do not allow your employer to sweep your injury under the rug. The only way to get better data on serious workplace injuries is to make sure that anything and everything an employee suffers gets reported appropriately.
This can be an intimidating experience to handle alone, so call us today for help.