Employees fear retaliation for reporting injuries, says survey
Many workers are not reporting injuries because of fear of retaliation from their employer. A new survey from FindLaw found that nine percent of American adults say they suffered an on-the-job injury but did not report it to their supervisor because they were afraid they would be fired, reprimanded, harassed or suffer some other consequence.
The most commonly cited injuries were slip-and-fall accidents, repetitive motion injuries and being struck or injured by machinery. A variety of federal and state laws protect workers from discrimination or retaliation for reporting injuries or pursuing workers’ compensation claims.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were more than three million reportable on-the-job injuries in the U.S. in 2012.