Nursing homes with unionized employees are more likely to report workplace illness and injury data to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration than nonunionized facilities, according to a report in the journal Health Affairs.
The Tuesday report, compiled by researchers from George Washington University, shows that unionization has led to increased employer compliance on illness and injury data.
The report says that typically only around 40% of nursing homes, which are considered to be highly dangerous workplaces, comply with OSHA’s requirement to report such workplace injuries and illnesses, but that figure jumps to 78% in cases where the nursing homes are unionized.
OSHA in 2016 issued a revised regulation requiring nursing home employers to give the agency report summaries of such illness and injury data, information that is then made publicly available.
The researchers said that labor unions play a large role in improving workplace safety by educating its members and monitoring workplaces, and that nonunion nursing home employees may be afraid to report on-the-job injuries.
The report says that because most nursing homes are still nonunionized, OSHA may be missing injury and illness data from some of the most dangerous workplaces in the country.