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A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints
COVID-19 mortality disproportionately affected specific occupations and industries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protects the health and safety of workers by setting and enforcing standards for working conditions. Workers may file OSHA complaints about unsafe conditions....
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669847/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909780 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.06.21262384 |
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author | Thomas, Marilyn D Matthay, Ellicott C. Duchowny, Kate A. Riley, Alicia R. Khela, Harmon Chen, Yea-Hung Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten Glymour, M. Maria |
author_facet | Thomas, Marilyn D Matthay, Ellicott C. Duchowny, Kate A. Riley, Alicia R. Khela, Harmon Chen, Yea-Hung Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten Glymour, M. Maria |
author_sort | Thomas, Marilyn D |
collection | PubMed |
description | COVID-19 mortality disproportionately affected specific occupations and industries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protects the health and safety of workers by setting and enforcing standards for working conditions. Workers may file OSHA complaints about unsafe conditions. Complaints may indicate poor workplace safety during the pandemic. We evaluated COVID-19-related complaints filed with California (Cal)/OSHA between January 1, 2020 and December 14, 2020 across seven industries. To assess whether workers in occupations with high COVID-19-related mortality were also most likely to file Cal/OSHA complaints, we compared industry-specific per-capita COVID-19 confirmed deaths from the California Department of Public Health with COVID-19-related complaints. Although 7,820 COVID-19-related complaints were deemed valid by Cal/OSHA, only 627 onsite inspections occurred and 32 citations were issued. Agricultural workers had the highest per-capita COVID-19 death rates (402 per 100,000 workers) but were least represented among workplace complaints (44 per 100,000 workers). Health Care workers had the highest complaint rates (81 per 100,000 workers) but the second lowest COVID-19 death rate (81 per 100,000 workers). Industries with the highest inspection rates also had high COVID-19 mortality. Our findings suggest complaints are not proportional to COVID-19 risk. Instead, higher complaint rates may reflect worker groups with greater empowerment, resources, or capacity to advocate for better protections. This capacity to advocate for safe workplaces may account for relatively low mortality rates in potentially high-risk occupations. Future research should examine factors determining worker complaints and complaint systems to promote participation of those with the greatest need of protection. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8669847 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86698472021-12-15 A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints Thomas, Marilyn D Matthay, Ellicott C. Duchowny, Kate A. Riley, Alicia R. Khela, Harmon Chen, Yea-Hung Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten Glymour, M. Maria medRxiv Article COVID-19 mortality disproportionately affected specific occupations and industries. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) protects the health and safety of workers by setting and enforcing standards for working conditions. Workers may file OSHA complaints about unsafe conditions. Complaints may indicate poor workplace safety during the pandemic. We evaluated COVID-19-related complaints filed with California (Cal)/OSHA between January 1, 2020 and December 14, 2020 across seven industries. To assess whether workers in occupations with high COVID-19-related mortality were also most likely to file Cal/OSHA complaints, we compared industry-specific per-capita COVID-19 confirmed deaths from the California Department of Public Health with COVID-19-related complaints. Although 7,820 COVID-19-related complaints were deemed valid by Cal/OSHA, only 627 onsite inspections occurred and 32 citations were issued. Agricultural workers had the highest per-capita COVID-19 death rates (402 per 100,000 workers) but were least represented among workplace complaints (44 per 100,000 workers). Health Care workers had the highest complaint rates (81 per 100,000 workers) but the second lowest COVID-19 death rate (81 per 100,000 workers). Industries with the highest inspection rates also had high COVID-19 mortality. Our findings suggest complaints are not proportional to COVID-19 risk. Instead, higher complaint rates may reflect worker groups with greater empowerment, resources, or capacity to advocate for better protections. This capacity to advocate for safe workplaces may account for relatively low mortality rates in potentially high-risk occupations. Future research should examine factors determining worker complaints and complaint systems to promote participation of those with the greatest need of protection. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory 2021-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8669847/ /pubmed/34909780 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.06.21262384 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , which allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. |
spellingShingle | Article Thomas, Marilyn D Matthay, Ellicott C. Duchowny, Kate A. Riley, Alicia R. Khela, Harmon Chen, Yea-Hung Bibbins-Domingo, Kirsten Glymour, M. Maria A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title | A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title_full | A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title_fullStr | A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title_full_unstemmed | A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title_short | A descriptive analysis of 2020 California Occupational Safety and Health Administration COVID-19-related complaints |
title_sort | descriptive analysis of 2020 california occupational safety and health administration covid-19-related complaints |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8669847/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34909780 http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/2021.12.06.21262384 |
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