A federal sided with the Center for Investigative Reporting, ruling in a Freedom of Information Act case that injury and illness records of employers must be made public thus eliminating the secrecy shrouding worker safety. Under the ruling, employers will now have incentives to improve safety records as they can now more readily be held accountable. The Trump administration had suspended Obama-era rules requiring companies to electronically report injury and illness records. The case was brought in the Northern District of California. (Reveal, June 5, 2020, by Reveal staff)
A Human Rights Watch report in 2019 found that not only were workers in the U.S. meat and poultry industry suffering more severe injuries than workers in other hazardous industries, but that there was a serious lack of transparency. OSHA questioned the accuracy of reporting of injuries and illnesses, and numerous studies revealed discrepancies between worker reports and industry records. (Human Rights Watch, September 4, 2020, by Brian Stauffer)
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