Washington D.C. Employment Law Update : Washington D.C. Employment Lawyer & Attorney : Littler Mendelson Law Firm : Virginia, Tyson's Corner

The injury and illness incidence rates in the health care and social assistance industry sectors reported an average of 5.2 incidents per 100 full-time workers for workers in these industries, down from 5.4 cases in 2009. According to the BLS data, these sectors were the only ones to report an increase in both employment and hours worked for 2010.

The construction industry also reported a seven percent decline of reported injury and illness cases in 2010, representing an average of 4 reported cases per 100 full-time workers.

Cases that involved injuries and illnesses that required days away from work, job transfers and/or restrictions (DART cases) represented more than half of the 3.1 million private industry injury and illness cases reported in 2010, although the incidence rate (1.8 cases per 100 full-time workers) remained unchanged from the prior year. As the BLS reports, manufacturing was the only private industry sector – continuing its 13-year trend – in which the rate of job transfer or restriction cases exceeded the rate of cases that required days away from work.

Other highlights of the BLS report include the following:

• Mid-size private industry establishments (those employing between 50 and 249 workers) had the highest recordable rates of injuries and illnesses. The smallest employers (those with fewer than 11 workers) experienced the lowest incidence rates.
• Injuries represented approximately 2.9 million (94.9 percent) of the 3.1 million nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses in 2010. Of these cases, 2.2 million (75.8 percent) occurred in service-providing industries, which employed 82.4 percent of the private industry workforce covered by the BLS survey. Goods-producing industries, which employed 17.6 percent of private sector workers in 2010, reported the remaining 0.7 million (24.2 percent) of the injuries.
• The change in illness rate from 2009 to 2010 was not statistically significant. According to the BLS, workplace illnesses accounted for 5.1 percent of the 3.1 million injury and illness cases in 2010. Broken out by sector, the following industries are responsible for illness cases reported in 2010: goods-producing employers (36.3 percent); manufacturing industry (30 percent); service-providing industries (63.7 percent). Within the service-providing sector, incidents of illnesses for the healthcare and social assistance industries represented 24.2 percent of all private industry illness cases.

Links to more detailed portions of the BLS report can be found here.

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According to the BLS, highlights of the survey include the following:

• Workplace homicides declined 1 percent in 2009, in contrast to an overall decline of 17 percent for all fatal work injuries. The homicide total for 2009 includes the 13 victims of the November shooting at Fort Hood. Workplace suicides were down 10 percent in 2009 from the series high of 263 in 2008.
• Though wage and salary workers and self-employed workers experienced similar declines in total hours worked in 2009, fatal work injuries among wage and salary workers in 2009 declined by 20 percent while fatal injuries among self-employed workers were down 3 percent.
• The wholesale trade industry was one of the few major private industry sectors reporting higher numbers of fatal work injuries in 2009.
• Fatal work injuries in the private construction sector declined by 16 percent in 2009 following the decline of 19 percent in 2008.
• Fatalities among non-Hispanic black or African-American workers were down 24 percent. This worker group also experienced a slightly larger decline in total hours worked than non-Hispanic white or Hispanic workers.
• The number of fatal workplace injuries in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations rose 6 percent, one of the few major occupation groups to record an increase in fatal work injuries in 2009.
• Transportation incidents, which accounted for nearly two-fifths of all the fatal work injuries in 2009, fell 21 percent from the 2,130 fatal work injuries reported in 2008.

In a statement, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said of the survey results: "While a decrease in the number of fatal work injuries is encouraging, we cannot – and will not – relent from our continued strong enforcement of workplace safety laws.”

Links to areas of the survey covering occupational fatalities by event or exposure; industry; occupation; selected worker characteristics; and by state can be found here.