Last week, the Alberta government announced that workplace injury rates in the province hit a record low in 2009:

• The rate of disabling injury claims dropped from 3.63 to 3.09 per 100 full-time jobs;

• Lost-time claim rates fell 10% to 1.69 per 100 and were down in all sectors with the biggest drops occurring in manufacturing, mining and petroleum; and

• Fatalities decreased from 166 to 110, a rate decline of 28.5% to 71 per million full-time jobs.

(Click here for more statistics.)

It sounds like great news. But assuming the numbers are true—and there’s no reason to doubt they are—they’re deceptive. Alberta isn’t becoming a safer place to work. The government is simply spinning the numbers to make it look that way. Sadly, it’s the same game that other provinces and OSHA in the U.S. has been playing for years.

What Alberta Omitted to Mention

Buried within the Alberta Employment and Immigration press release is a short sentence stating that the province experienced 8% unemployment in 2009. What the release doesn`t say is that the loss of jobs was highest among the most dangerous industries, including sectors mentioned as experiencing the sharpest decline in lost-time claim rates:

• 35,000 jobs lost in manufacturing;

• 30,000 in oil and gas; and

• 20,000 in construction.

Yes, I recognize that we’re talking about injury rates, not totals. But it’s been well documented that high unemployment chills accident reporting. (Click here for an OHS Insider story citing studies demonstrating this.) Quite simply, workers are much less likely to report accidents and injuries when jobs are scarce.

The other key piece of information that Alberta Employment and Immigration failed to mention is the recent Auditor General report blasting the province for its lax enforcement of OHS laws. (Click here to read our blog on the report; click here for the report itself—the workplace safety section begins on page 36.)

Under-Reporting of Workplace Injuries

The fact of the matter is that workplace injuries are an inconvenient truth for both employers and the governments that regulate them. It’s a problem in just about all industrialized countries. Recently, the Obama Administration acknowledged that under-reporting of workplace and even fatalities by employers has been taking place in the U.S. for years. According to some estimates, state government and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counts underestimate actual injuries and illnesses by as much as 69%. OSHA has known of the situation but looked the other way. After all, when employers don’t report injuries, it makes the regulators look like they’re doing a better job.

Let me be clear. I have no concrete evidence to suggest that employers in Alberta are actually under-reporting injuries, let alone that the government is in on the scam.

But I do know that the government has a political interest in making it look like injuries are falling.

I also know that the claims of falling injury rates are inconsistent with the Auditor General`s report and at least somewhat deceptive given the economic backdrop in which they were reported.

Given these circumstances, you can understand my reluctance to give the government of Alberta the benefit of the doubt.