Study of workplace safety inspections: no harm to profits | New York ...

Manhattan business owners often complain that workplace safety inspections cause needless red tape that ties up and hurts their bottom lines. But a new study says the opposite is true: safety inspections not only reduce injuries to employees, but they also enhance the value and profits of inspected companies.

Researchers conducted a 10-year study of hundreds of randomly inspected businesses and found that those inspected companies experienced a 9.4 reduction in injury claims with no reductions in sales or profits.

Even better news for the business owners: their inspected companies saved an average of 26 percent in workers' compensation costs in the four years after an inspection, compared to similar businesses not inspected at random.

Business owners like to say the federal government's Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a jobs-killing bureaucratic nightmare that should reduce or even end its random inspections. Owners would prefer a voluntary worker safety compliance program.

But a Harvard Business School professor and co-author of the study say those complaining owners have it exactly backwards: "These inspections ironically appear to be creating value for the firms that they are visiting in terms of reduced workers' comp costs and frequency of injuries."

The business owners and politicians who say regulations kill American competitiveness are ignoring the billions in savings researchers say companies rack up by keeping employees on the job and healthy.

New York employees who are injured on the job are typically entitled to workers' compensation benefits. If you've been injured and have been unfairly denied needed and deserved benefits, speak with an attorney experienced in helping clients get their medical costs covered and a portion of their wages replaced by workers' comp.

Source: Associated Press, "Study finds government job-safety inspections reduce injuries without hurting profits," May 17, 2012

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