The Cost of Failing to Protect Workers on the Job (Part 3)

In previous posts, we talked about the real costs of workplace accidents, and consideration for worker safety, in a personal context. A comprehensive resource from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA provides a lot of information on how workplace injuries hurt companies and frontline workers like. But what do government agencies and safety advocates recommend? How do companies prevent these kinds of tragic incidents?

In analyzing rates of worker injury, OSHA cites things like “the cost-shifting away from state worker’s compensation, and the fissuring of US workplaces” in suggesting that the current system may not be serving workers in the best way possible.

OSHA also talks about the costs of uncompensated injuries and the nature of minor injuries that become problematic over time.

Helpful Statistics

In detailing ways to deal with workplace injury, OSHA does point out that the American workplace has made quite a bit of progress since the 1970s, when an estimated 14,000 workers were killed on the job each year. New numbers support the idea that workplace fatalities have been more than cut in half since then. But, as OSHA points out, there is still more to do.

For OSHA, the main solution is “more effort” on the part of employers. OSHA also recommends more broad-based application of workers compensation benefits, contending that the many workers who are not entitled or not receiving a benefit leads to a situation where taxpayers subsidize unsafe employers, and too many workers roll the dice when they come in to work each day.

“More can, and must, be done.” reads the report. “The acceptable number of work injuries, especially fatal work injuries, is zero.”

OSHA also cites “substantial variation” in workplace safety across different industries.

In short, it seems that the government agency is simply calling for more vigilance on the part of employers. It’s important to note, though, that the OSHA report simply looks at the numbers of injuries. It doesn’t really address the issue of corporate culture.

A superior corporate culture will take safety into account, along with all sorts of other issues that make the workplace better or worse for those who work there. But it’s hard to measure a corporate culture — you have to be there on the ground and actually see how decisions are made, how leaders feel about their responsibilities, and how they work with other parties to pursue excellence. Staffing services see this because they work closely with client companies — in some cases, they may see evidence of excellence in workplace safety. In other situations, they may catch problems and help to advise client companies about making workplaces safer. Sometimes it takes an outside set of eyes to really help with understanding the realities of a work environment.

For more on these types of issues, keep an eye on the Full Steam Staffing blog as we continue to talk about these very important relationships between workers and companies, between companies and their staffing services, and between employers and U.S. government agencies.