8.29.14  

  LexisNexis® Legal Newsroom Workers Compensation Law  

 

Eric J. Conn was quoted in an article titled "New Study Points to Significant Underreporting of Injuries to Bureau of Labor Statistics."

 

An excerpt:

 

According to a recently published study, as many as 90 percent of the employers participating in the annual US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) do not comply with OSHA recordkeeping regulations. …

 

Of course, the study is not without its detractors. For example, Eric J. Conn, Esq., of Epstein Becker Green, in Washington, D.C., points out that during the Obama Administration, federal OSHA has been extremely focused on the “supposed epidemic of under-recording injuries.” Conn adds that in terms of under-recording specifically, OSHA expended substantial resources on an Injury & Illness Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program, but the results of the numerous inspections in the program disproved OSHA’s hypothesis that under-recording was rampant. “If OSHA’s trained compliance staff was not able to ferret out systemic under-recording in an inspection program designed to find the worst of the worst, I am skeptical of this study’s findings of such wholesale recordkeeping violations,” said Conn. Conn says that the study does, however, support OSHA’s narrative on the topic, that indeed, despite the lack of any evidence of under-recording from OSHA’s inspection program, the Agency has nevertheless pushed ahead with a Recordkeeping rulemaking intended to enhance punishment for recordkeeping violations. Conn cautions, “The reality is, however, OSHA’s proposed rule would actually cause more employers to under-record injuries.”