OSHA Wants Electronic Workplace Injury Reports They Can Post Online

The federal government calling for transparency from private industry is kind of funny

Are you ready for a public competition with other businesses in your industry on who has the safest workplaces?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration hopes so—it wants to require employers to report their injury and illness records to the agency electronically. OSHA will scrub personally identifiable information from these records in order to protect employee privacy, but then will post these records online. The public—including prospective employees—will then be able to compare companies not only on their overall injury rates, but also on the types of injuries and illnesses their workers are experiencing.

This will encourage employers to fix hazards in their workplaces, said OSHA Administrator David Michaels.

"Employers want to be seen as the top employers in their industry," he said.