Study Says Random Workplace Inspections Increase Safety
For New York and New Jersey construction companies, random inspections are often seen as a headache—an interruption to the regular flow of the work day and the potential to be scolded for oversights and mistakes. To the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and other safety proponents, they are a necessary safety measure, helping to prevent accidents.
Up until now, “proponents of each argument make their cases based on passion and little else,” with companies saying the inspections only drive up costs. But a new study shows such inspections actually improve safety without driving up costs, according to Science Now.
Most workplace inspections are done by OSHA, a federal agency tasked with setting and enforcing safety standards, or by state agencies approved by OSHA. But the efficacy of these inspections is difficult to study in an unbiased way, says Michael Toffel, an environmental management expert at Harvard Business School. Most safety regulators don’t inspect companies at random and instead typically focus on those that have accidents or where workers have filed complaints. Afterward, injury rates tend to revert back to whatever they were before the incident occurred, even without an OSHA inspection. So researchers could infer that the inspection played a bigger role in the reduction of injuries than it actually did.
On the other hand, says Toffel, if OSHA finds incomplete documentation during an inspection, it will require the company to keep better records—which, in turn, may lead to more injuries being reported. In the late 1980s, for example, after OSHA imposed multimillion-dollar fines on a few large manufacturing plants for poor recordkeeping, reports of injuries in similar plants more than doubled. A study of these sites would make it look as if the inspection led to an uptick in injuries.
Comparing the workplaces randomly chosen for inspection with matched “controls,” which is comparable to using a placebo group in a trial of a new drug or vaccine, had never been done before, says Toffel.
Companies undergoing random inspections saw workplace injuries decline by about 9% in the 4 years following the date of inspection compared with injury reports during the same time period in firms that were not inspected, the researchers report online today in Science. The cost of the injuries reported—including medical treatment and missed work—fell by 26%. Using information from financial data provider Standard & Poor’s, the investigators found that the inspections had no effect on employment, total earnings, sales, or the survival of the company.
What this means is that if the science behind the study is true, safety proponents who advocate the use of random inspections may be on the right side of the argument. If the inspections do not cost the companies money or employees and they reduce the risk of accidents, there seems no logical reason to argue against them aside from them simply being a thorn in construction companies’ sides.
Construction accidents are common. When a New York or New Jersey job site is not operating under strict safety regulations, they are even more frequent. Inspections are just one way that risks are reduced.
About Ginarte Construction Attorneys
At the Ginarte Law Firm, we represent construction workers injured in accidents while working. We know that even the safest job sites can be scenes of tragic accidents. Even when you take every precaution possible, accidents happen. And frequently, the cause of the accident is a deeper lying issue like outdated equipment or poorly crafted company safety policies.
If you’ve been hurt on a construction job in New York and New Jersey, you could be entitled to compensation. Contact our construction accident attorneys today to discuss your accident and how we might be able to help.
