For several years, we have encouraged employers to move away from safety-management programs which primarily track the program's effectiveness based upon recordable injuries, and which utilize monetary-incentive programs based on the number of recordable workplace injuries. Our principal reason for discouraging such programs is that recordable incidents focus on "lagging" indicators, may not identify causes, and may be affected by the capriciousness of timing and "bad luck."

But employers now have another reason to increasingly shift away from programs primarily driven by recordables. Even before the current Administration took office, its leaders questioned the accuracy of employer recordkeeping and asserted that employees underreport workplace injuries in order to participate in safety incentive programs, or as a result of pressure imposed upon them by employers.

Moreover, all branches of the U.S. Labor Department have steadily escalated their emphasis on the prosecution of whistleblower claims. OSHA has actively encouraged employees to be sensitive to possible retaliation and discrimination on the basis of protected behavior, including safety-related activities, especially "reporting recordable injuries." Numerous court decisions have come out in the last few years in which OSHA claimed that terminations for safety violations associated with injuries were a pretext for retaliation.