We, the undersigned, strongly oppose a new Labor Department proposal that would allow employers to hide their injury records.

The proposal would keep workers, the public and OSHA in the dark about injuries and illnesses that are occurring in American workplaces. It will make it harder to identify dangerous workplaces and to take action to prevent them.

OSHA’s 2016 proposed rule was designed to shine a light on safety problems. It required companies with more than 250 employees to send OSHA annual information about workplace injuries and illnesses.

This information is already collected by employers and available to OSHA at individual worksites - and now it would be available in a central database.

Collecting this information is vital. It will:

•Help OSHA identify dangerous industries, find patterns of workers getting sick or injured in certain occupations and take action to fix those problems

•Bring much-needed sunshine to often-hidden stories of dangerous working conditions, by making illness and injury logs available to the public

•Enable researchers and advocacy groups to study on-the-job injuries, call attention to companies with safety issues and come up with ideas to prevent injuries and illnesses

Companies claim that workers’ confidential information will be revealed. But there is no confidential data, only patterns of injury and illness that can be identified and prevented.

We believe in sensible, cost-effective regulations that will help make our workplaces safer. We call on OSHA to strengthen – not roll back – rules that require timely, accurate collection of information that can be used to reduce workplace injuries, illness and fatalities.