A proposed requirement to increase the types of work related incidents that must be reported to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration within eight hours may not help identify "significant workplace hazard[s] or failure[s] within a safety and health program and...place[s] another reporting burden on the employer while doing little, if anything to improve workplace safety," according to poultry industry groups.
The Joint Poultry Industry Safety & Health Council filed comments opposing the new rule, which expands the reporting requirement for hospitalizations to require reporting of a single employee hospitalization within eight hours for work-related incidents. "It is not unusual for an employee to be admitted for observation or testing and be released the next day without any treatment," said the group. "Such minor injuries are not indicative of a significant workplace hazard or failure within a safety and health program."
According to OSHA, the additional reporting of hospitalization will allow for the collection of more information on the cause of these injuries and illnesses. But the council maintains that the DART (Days Away, Restrictions and Transfers) rate, calculated from existing injury and illness data, already identifies those workplaces with frequent, severe injuries. "We fail to see why this currently available data is not sufficient to meet the goal of identifying 'the most dangerous workplaces' and why OSHA needs this type of additional injury data," they said.
