The new administrator of the Occupation Safety and Health Administration spoke out earlier this month against measures that lead workers to hide workplace injuries. “Saying you have zero tolerance for injury is crazy,” said David Michaels, who is an assistant secretary of labor. If workers who report injuries are fired, they are not likely to come forward, he said, noting that because of this, “we don’t know what injury rates really are.”
Michaels spoke at a June 16 construction business forum, co-sponsored by ENR and the Construction Users Roundtable, an owners group. More than 200 construction professionals and owners attended the meeting in Arlington, Va.