Chairman Miller Statement on Revised Workplace Fatalities Statistics

Thursday, April 17, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC -- U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, issued a statement today on the release of revised statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on workplace fatalities in 2006:

“We must not forget that these are not just numbers – we’re talking about real people, and for every workplace death in this country, there is a family somewhere that is grieving. The fact that things are going in the wrong direction is deeply disturbing. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Department of Labor need to do a better job of enforcing our nation’s health and safety laws. There is no substitute for strong enforcement of the law, especially if we want to protect those workers who perform the most dangerous jobs and those workers who are the most vulnerable to exploitation.”

The BLS found that the number of workplace deaths jumped by more than 2 percent between 2005 and 2006. Fatalities for Hispanic workers also rose – from 923 to 990 – to a rate of 4.9 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2006 from a rate of 4.7 in 2005. Preliminary BLS numbers issued last August on 2006 deaths initially showed that the number and rate of all workplace fatalities had decreased, including declining rates among Hispanic workers.

The House Education and Labor Committee announced that it will hold a hearing on workplace injury, illness and fatality numbers next month.

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