Reporting workers' compensation injuries in California: how many are missed

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boden LI ; Ozonoff A ; Boden LI ; Ozonoff A
• Description:
  In recent years, California newspapers have reported about employers who have systematically underreported workplace injuries. In 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported that Southern California Edison Co. had received safety bonuses of $35 million from the State of California based on Edison's reporting of worker injuries that was later found to be incomplete (Douglass 2004). In 2005 and 2006, the Oakland Tribune published a series of articles questioning injury reporting by KFM, the consortium hired to rebuild the San Francisco Bay Bridge (Tucker 2005). These newspaper articles and research studies of workplace injury and illness reporting have raised concerns that underreporting may be much more widespread. For this reason, the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC) asked Boston University School of Public health to analyze existing injury reporting data to determine whether underreporting is a substantial issue in the California workers' compensation system. In this study, we also compare estimates of underreporting in California with estimates for Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Occupational Health Safety Workplace
• Keywords:
  Analytical-processes Injuries Injury-prevention Quantitative-analysis Statistical-analysis Workplace-monitoring Workplace-studies
• Publisher:
  State of California, Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Department of Industrial Relations
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Report ; Report
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Massachusetts ; Minnesota ; New Mexico ; Oregon ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 10 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Washington ; West Virginia ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) ; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health ; Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America ; North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-41
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20038495
• Citation:
  Sacramento, CA: State of California, Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Department of Industrial Relations, 2008 Aug; :1-41
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2008
• Performing Organization:
  Boston University, Medical Campus
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20020901
• Source Full Name:
  Reporting workers' compensation injuries in California: how many are missed?
• End Date:
  20060831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:282d89cabd582be4a612e51f669b7680dbd9ff653722aa52a4756aaa35481181ecf7aaae79ea338bb1dce70ab1618984e69349d4d2054a751d8a171d41b318be
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/192189/cdc_192189_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 291.22 KB ]