The Florida workplace is dangerous!
You may be surprised to learn, that America has one of the highest rates of work place accidents in the developed world. Florida in particular ranks near the bottom of all 50 States for workplace injuries, particularly construction related injuries. Although June was National Safety Month, nearly 4 out of every 10 American men have been wounded at work! This means that 36% of ALL American male workers have suffered or continue to suffer from on the job injuries. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has catalogued more than 4 million non-fatal workers' compensation injuries in 2006. Of those work place injuries, BLS reports that 43% of injured workers' missed more than one week of work and an incredible 31% were out of work for more than one month! Think of the burden on these injured workers and their families!
There are many reasons for this disturbing trend. Under the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration ("OSHA") has been slashed in terms of budget and effort. In prior years, the local Florida OSHA officials were quite diligent about investigating serious on the job injuries. Over the past couple of years, the law office of Randy Zeldin has witnessed a decline in investigations done by OSHA for job injuries. It seems that unless there is an actual death on the job, Florida OSHA officials are not interested and infrequently investigate.
The result of poor OSHA oversight is a change of environment and attitude, whereby Employers feel empowered to be lax about job safety. In combination with weak Florida workers' compensation laws, which provide Employers and their insurers with little incentive to provide benefits, Florida workers will continue to experience unacceptable rates of injury into the future
