Have You Been Injured At Work?
Have You Gotten Ill From Workplace Exposures?
Every year 10s of thousands of workers are injured or made ill due to exposure to hazards in the workplace and insufficient, missing or badly maintained protection. Some injuries or illnesses are minor while others may change a worker’s life forever. Another leading contributor is insufficient, inadequate or complete lack of training.
Besides those workers injured or made ill by exposure to hazards in the workplace there are between 4,000 and 6,000 workers that are known to have died from workplace exposure to hazards. It is suspected that half as many to twice as many workers die from workplace incident but are not reported. It may be more. We have no way of knowing. We know it’s probably less than before the OSH Act of 1970 but there is no way to know with certainty.
The WI Dept of Workforce Development and the WI DWD‘s Worker’s Compensation Division are restricted by law what information they are allowed to collect or publish publicly. In preparing its annual report on the State of the Wisconsin Workforce for release at Worker’s Memorial Day [4/28] WisCOSH is able to get only a portion of the information that is collected and there is much information that is not collected. At best WisCOSH is able to get only a partial list of workers that were killed on the job the previous year. Very seldom is a premature death due to workplace exposure included. Some information on worker exposure, injury, illness and death is available from sources such as the AFL-CIO and some individual unions but there is no information from the majority of workers. The “At-Will Employee”.
It is for that reason that WisCOSH is surveying the Wisconsin workforce at large. Whether you have a union or not your workplace experience is a voice that is seldom heard. Every person that takes the survey helps build a much more accurate picture of what the people working in Wisconsin face at work. Every person you pass this survey on to that takes it will help WisCOSH identify where workers are, what they are experiencing and shape how WisCOSH advocates on their behalf and what information they need to make their jobs safe and their workplace a healthy place to be.
WisCOSH wants every worker to go home at the end of shift as healthy and whole as when they started their workday. Please take our survey, answering these questions will help us identify areas where more help is needed. Unless you choose to provide your name and contact information your answers are private and not connected directly to you. You do not need to be a member of WisCOSH to take the survey nor do you need to belong to a union. You don’t even need to be currently working to take the survey.