[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 102 (Friday, May 28, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28905-28906]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-11367]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Bureau of Labor Statistics


Information Collection Activities; Comment Request

AGENCY: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to 
reduce paperwork and respondent burden, conducts a pre-clearance 
consultation program to provide the general public and Federal agencies 
with an opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing 
collections of information in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction 
Act of 1995. This program helps to ensure that requested data can be 
provided in the desired format, reporting burden (time and financial 
resources) is minimized, collection instruments are clearly understood, 
and the impact of collection requirements on respondents can be 
properly assessed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is soliciting 
comments concerning the proposed revision of the ``Survey of 
Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.'' A copy of the proposed 
information collection request (ICR) can be obtained by contacting the 
individual listed below in the Addresses section of this notice.

DATES: Written comments must be submitted to the office listed in the 
Addresses section of this notice on or before July 27, 2021.

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer, 
Division of Management Systems, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Room 4080, 
2 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20212. Written comments also 
may be transmitted by email to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nora Kincaid, BLS Clearance Officer, 
202-691-7628 (this is not a toll free number). (See Addresses section.)

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    Section 24(a) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 
requires the Secretary of Labor to develop and maintain an effective 
program of collection, compilation, and analysis of statistics on 
occupational injuries and illnesses. The Commissioner of Labor 
Statistics has been delegated the responsibility for ``Furthering the 
purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Act by developing and 
maintaining an effective program of collection, compilation, analysis 
and publication of occupational safety and health statistics.'' The BLS 
fulfills this responsibility, in part, by conducting the Survey of 
Occupational Injuries and Illnesses in conjunction with participating 
state statistical agencies. The BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and 
Illnesses provides the Nation's primary indicator of the progress 
towards achieving the goal of safer and healthier workplaces. The 
survey produces the overall rate of occurrence of work injuries and 
illnesses by industry which can be compared to prior years to produce 
measures of the rate of change. These data are used to assess the 
Nation's progress in improving the safety and health of America's work 
places; to prioritize scarce federal and state resources; to guide the 
development of injury and illness prevention strategies; and to support 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and state safety 
and health standards and research. Data are essential for evaluating 
the effectiveness of federal and state programs for improving work 
place safety and health. For these reasons, it is necessary to provide 
estimates separately for participating states.
    Effective with the release of estimates from the Survey of 
Occupational and Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) in November 2023, the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will introduce the publication of a 
new biennial case and demographic data series for cases that involve 
days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) for all industries. This 
shift will result in significant changes to the SOII news release and 
how publication tables are presented to provide additional data on the 
case circumstances and worker demographics for DJTR cases, in addition 
to details that have long been published for cases involving days away 
from work (DAFW). Biennial estimates for DJTR and DAFW will be released 
together. Summary industry estimates, produced annually, will remain 
unchanged.

II. Current Action

    Office of Management and Budget clearance is being sought for the 
Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. The survey measures the 
overall rate of occurrence of work injuries and illnesses by industry 
for private industry, state governments, and local governments. For the 
more serious injuries and illnesses, those with days away from work 
(DAFW), the survey provides detailed information on the injured/ill 
worker (age, sex, race, industry, occupation, and length of service), 
the time in shift, and the circumstances of the injuries and illnesses 
classified by standardized codes (nature of the injury/illness, part of 
body affected, primary and secondary sources of the injury/illness, and 
the event or exposure which produced the injury/illness).
    Days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR) cases have become more 
prevalent since 1992 when detailed data were first collected only for 
days-away-from-work (DAFW) cases. In 1992, DJTR cases accounted for 21 
percent of total days away from work, days of restricted work activity, 
or job transfer cases (DART). By 2011, DJTR accounted for 40 percent of 
these cases. At that time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began a 
series of three 3-year pilot studies from 2011-19 to collect DJTR case 
details for select industries. When these pilot studies concluded with 
2019 data, DJTR cases accounted for 43 percent of DART cases.
    The aforementioned pilot studies conducted by the BLS were intended 
to learn more about occupational injuries and illnesses that resulted 
in days of job transfer or work restriction (DJTR) by comparing the 
circumstances and worker characteristics of injuries and illnesses that 
required days away from work (DAFW) to recuperate and those that led to 
DJTR only. Detailed data on DJTR cases will lead to a better 
understanding of how occupational

[[Page 28906]]

injuries and illnesses are managed and give a more complete accounting 
of the types of injuries and illnesses that occur to workers and how 
they occurred. Prior to these pilot studies, the BLS Survey of 
Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) collected and published only 
data on the case circumstances and worker characteristics for DAFW 
cases. These pilot studies expanded the SOII to collect and report the 
same detail for DJTR cases for select industries. Data from these 
pilots can be found at https://www.bls.gov/iif/soii-data.htm#djtr.
    The proportion of DJTR cases as a percentage of DART cases among 
private industry overall has trended higher since 1992, while the 
proportion of DAFW cases has trended downward over this period. Both 
the incidence rate and number of cases of DJTR has exceeded that of 
DAFW in the manufacturing industry sector since the late 1990s. The 
pilot collection of DJTR case details has provided important insights 
into workplace safety and health data that were previously unavailable. 
Analysis of DJTR data showed that their inclusion provides a more 
complete understanding of the circumstances leading to occupational 
injuries and illnesses than DAFW cases alone can provide. For example, 
DJTR cases as a percentage of DART cases in the Food services and 
drinking places industry remained the same regardless of the age of the 
worker. While in the Amusement, gambling, and recreation industry, 
workers under the age of 45 had a higher percentage of DJTR cases than 
DAFW cases. If studying only a few selected industries, policy makers 
and researchers would be unable to determine the complete picture of 
this phenomenon. If all industries could be analyzed, safety resources 
and return-to-work strategies could be developed to address the unique 
work experiences by the age of the worker or by other characteristics.
    Based on the findings from these studies and the depth of 
information they produced, as well as the recommendation from the 
National Academy of Sciences (NAS) A Smarter National Surveillance 
System for Occupational Safety and Health in the 21st Century,\1\ the 
BLS decided to collect information on DJTR cases for all industries. 
Particularly, Recommendation A from Chapter 4 of the NAS report noted, 
``BLS should routinely collect detailed case and demographic data for 
injuries and illnesses resulting in job transfer or restricted duty as 
well as those resulting in days away from work.'' The report further 
notes that this could be easily accomplished in the short term with 
minimal impact to respondent burden due to the fact that these data are 
already recorded by employers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ See https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24835/a-smarter-national-surveillance-system-for-occupational-safety-and-health-in-the-21st-century.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

III. Desired Focus of Comments

    The Bureau of Labor Statistics is particularly interested in 
comments that:
     Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility.
     Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the 
burden of the proposed collection of information, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used.
     Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the 
information to be collected.
     Minimize the burden of the collection of information on 
those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submissions of responses.
    Title of Collection: Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
    OMB Number: 1220-0045.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Affected Public: Businesses or other for-profits; Not-for-profit 
institutions; Farms; State, Local or Tribal Governments.

                                      BLS 9300 Respondent Burden Estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                   Average time
           Form 9300                 Total          Frequency          Total       per response      Estimated
                                  respondents                        responses       (minutes)     burden hours
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Reporting Burden........          86,200  Annually........          86,200          63.698          91,513
Total Recording Burden........         232,800  Annually........         232,800          24.831          96,346
                               ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Totals....................         232,800  Annually........         232,800  ..............         187,859
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be summarized 
and/or included in the request for Office of Management and Budget 
approval of the information collection request; they also will become a 
matter of public record.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 25th day of May 2021.
Leslie Bennett,
Acting Chief, Division of Management Systems.
[FR Doc. 2021-11367 Filed 5-27-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-24-P