OSHA Wants To Hide Information On Worker Injuries

The Agency Plans to Roll Back an Important Obama-Era Recordkeeping Rule

OSHA proposed last week to roll back parts of the “Electronic Recordkeeping” regulation that the Obama administration issued in 2016. The rule would have required certain employers to electronically send worker injury and illness information into OSHA. OSHA then intended to publicize the (non-confidential) information on its website. In a somewhat amusing, but Orwellian press release, OSHA portrays the rollback as an effort to “better protect” workers’ confidential information.

This is about the administration listening to employers who don’t want workers and the public to know about dangerous conditions.

I finally had a chance to read the full OSHA proposal. Spoiler Alert: I’ve read a lot of OSHA regulatory proposals over my career and this one barely passes the laugh test, much less presents a serious argument for why this regulation should be weakened. Instead of an effort to better protect workers’ confidential information, this is a poorly justified attempt to protect employers from having to reveal potentially embarrassing information.


https://www.dcreport.org/2018/08/03/osha-wants-to-help-employers-duck-worker-safety-disclosure/