•More than two-thirds said they knew of employees who feared disciplinary action if they reported injuries.

•The GAO pointed to another factor that discourages reporting: programs that reward employees with prizes or bonuses if their plants go long periods without recordable injuries.

GAO was asked by Congress to determine (1) whether DOL verifies that employers are accurately recording workers’ injuries and illnesses and, if so, the adequacy of these efforts, and (2) what factors may affect the accuracy of employers’ injury and illness records.

Separately, the U.S. labor department announced in late October it would step up oversight of all state workplace-safety programs, “a signal of more-stringent enforcement following a report critical of Nevada’s response to a string of workplace deaths,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The action follows calls from unions and senior congressional Democrats -- including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and U.S. Rep. George Miller of California -- for a tough response to 12 construction deaths that occurred on the Las Vegas Strip between December 2006 and June 2008 amid a building boom,” the newspaper added.

“The safety of workers must be priority one, and the U.S. Department of Labor is stepping up review of state OSHA plans to ensure that is the case,” said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

State OSHA plans are required to be at least as effective as the federal safety agency, but the federal government’s ability and effort to enforce that is limited and varies by who is running the executive branch. The deaths in Nevada raised concerns about OSHA’s monitoring of all state plans, putting pressure on the agency to strengthen its oversight of all such programs.