Having a job shouldn't be a matter of life or death, yet each year millions of workers get killed, injured, or seriously ill at work. Workplace safety regulation has become virtually non-existent, while the frequency of repetitive stress injuries climbs due to a lack of ergonomic standards. The workers compensation system fails too many workers, who are discouraged from filing claims or retaliated against once claims are filed. Whistleblowers who report the most egregious health and safety violations can quickly find themselves out of a job, with very little recourse.

The Occupational Safety and Health Act guarantees every worker a safe and healthful working environment, yet each year nearly 6,000 U.S. workers are killed on the job, 50,000 more die from occupational illness, and more than 6 million workers are injured or become sick on the job. All Americans bear the financial burden of workplace injuries and deaths through reduced job opportunities, lower salaries, earlier social security payments, and higher costs for health insurance, workers' compensation and disability.

While it is the job of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to set and enforce labor standards, the agency has recently abandoned most of its efforts to develop new clear standards that would protect workers and guide employers. Ergonomic standards that had been carefully developed to address a dramatic rise in repetitive stress injuries (RSIs) were taken away by the Bush Administration in 2001. While a "comprehensive approach" to ergonomics was promised, no action has been taken since then. In 93 percent of the 1200+ cases in the last two decades where a worker's death was investigated due to the employer's willful safety violations, OSHA declined to seek criminal prosecution.

OSHA has been called "the black hole of government" and "a bureaucracy...where aggressive enforcement is suffocated by endless layers of review, where victims' families are frozen out but companies adeptly work the rules in their favor." Without any fear of prosecution or worry that clear rules will be enacted, employers are free to use a callous cost-benefit analysis that sacrifices safety considerations to financial ones, knowing that at most they face a slap on the wrist, even when workers die.

Also, employers are also increasingly enacting "behavioral safety" programs which shift responsibility for job injuries to workers instead of eliminating hazardous workplace conditions. Under the guise of promoting safety, the programs have the chilling effect of discouraging workers from reporting claims. Those who report hazards or make claims may be threatened with discipline, due to the lack of adequate whistleblower protections.

When the workers’ compensation system was created, workers no longer had a right to sue their employers for job-related injuries and illnesses. In return, workers are supposed to be guaranteed full and fair compensation for their injuries. In most states, however, the system is near collapse and benefits the workers it is designed to help least of all. Many workers injured on the job are encouraged not to file claims and face retaliation from their employers if they have no choice but to file a claim or miss work due to injury. Employers and insurers often drag their feet, knowing they have the resources to outlast injured workers who must wait for even a minimal amount of care and compensation.

Workplace Fairness supports stronger safety and health protections, more effective enforcement of these protections, and an end to legislative and regulatory attacks on job safety and workers’ compensation laws. Stronger whistleblower protections are needed for workers who report job hazards and injuries, as is fair compensation for injured workers. No worker should forfeit their job, their health, or their life because of inadequate workplace health and safety protections.