New Report Says Workers Dying On The Job For Lack Of OSHA Resources

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/11310

By Doug Cunningham

The New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health is out with a new report that finds workers are still dying on the job in unacceptable numbers. Joe Shufro is Executive Director of the committee.

: “It essentially finds that workers are being killed on the job here in New York, and in other parts of the country, as a result of the failure of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to enforce the law. And that's not because the agency is not doing it's job. It's that they don't have enough resources."

The report finds that 69 percent of the workplace injuries in New York involved non-union workers. The rate of workplace fatalities in New York City fell in 2007, but increased in the rest of New York state. The report says the number of OSHA inspectors is insufficient to protect the health and safety of workers.