The nation’s workplace safety laws and penalties are too weak to effectively protect workers, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual Death on the Job report, which will be released on Thursday, April 24.  The report identifies how many people lost their lives and were injured at workplaces in the past year and provides in-depth state analysis on workplace safety. 

Alaska and Wyoming had the highest rates of worker fatalities in the last year while New Hampshire and Rhode Island had the lowest rates. Oregon and South Carolina were the two states with the lowest average penalties for employers who were cited for serious violations of worker safety protections.

This year’s report also examined job safety enforcement in cases of worker deaths, finding that the average national total penalty in fatality investigations was just $10,133.  Delaware had the lowest average penalties in fatality cases, with no penalties assessed, followed by Alaska, with $750 in penalties per fatality case, and Oregon with $793 in penalties.

The report’s release comes in advance of the 20th Workers Memorial Day, April 28th, which commemorates workers who were killed or injured in the past year.  As part of the day of remembrance, community and union members from around the world will participate in hundreds of events to remember local workers and draw attention to the problem of unaddressed workplace hazards.

“Our nation’s system of rules and enforcement has fallen embarrassingly short of its goal of ensuring workplace safety,” said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.  “America’s workers simply can’t afford four more years of Bush Administration-style cuts, rollbacks, and opposition to new safety protections.  Congress and the next president must guarantee good jobs, safe jobs, for all.”

Also in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, on Tuesday, April 29th, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold a hearing to investigate OSHA enforcement in cases of worker fatalities. Peg Seminario, Director of Safety and Health at the AFL-CIO, will testify before the committee, arguing that the OSHA Act is too weak to protect workers and to deter employers from violating the law.. The hearing will take place in Room 430 at the Dirksen Senate Office Building at 10:00 a.m.

In 2006, 4.1 million workers were injured and 5,840 workers were killed due to job hazards. Another 50,000-60,000 died due to occupational diseases.  On an average day, 153 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and disease, and another 11,233 are injured.  

The report also shows that workplace fatalities have increased sharply since 2005 for Latino and immigrant workers, who face dramatically higher risks of death on the job.  The fatal injury rate for all workers was 4/100,000 workers, as compared to a rate of 5/100,000 for Latino workers in 2006.  Since 1992, the number of fatalities among Latino workers has increased by 86 percent from 533 fatal injuries in 1992 to 990 deaths in 2006.  Among foreign-born workers, job fatalities have increased by 63 percent, from 635 to 1,035 deaths.  

The Death on the Job report also reveals problems with the “safety net” of regulatory and oversight bodies such as OSHA.  There are only 2,094 OSHA inspectors (821 federal and 1,273 state inspectors) for the
approximately 130 million workers in the United States today.   At this rate, federal OSHA inspectors are only able to inspect workplaces, on average, once every 133 years, and state OSHA inspectors on average once every 65 years.  Also, in FY 2007, the average OSHA penalty for employers who allowed “conditions creating a substantial probability of death or serious physical harm to workers” was only $909.