Surveys Labor Analysis

Based on the survey, the actual costs normally associated with the maintenance operation were reduced by more than 50 per cent. The comparison of maintenance costs included the actual labor and overhead of the maintenance department. It also included the actual materials cost of repair parts, tools and other equipment required to maintain plant equipment. The analysis did not include lost production time, variances in direct labor or other costs that should be directly attributed to inefficient maintenance practices. 

Following this procedure, we merge firm-level data from the survey to claimant-level data from Miimesota s workers compensation files at the Department of Labor and Industry. Since costs are the product of claim fi equency, claim duration, and benefits, we partition our statistical analysis into claim frequency and claim duration components to see whether the HRM practices affect claim fi equency, claim duration, or both. This will provide evidence about whether costs are reduced either because of loss prevention effects (in that a particular practice reduces the number of claims) or loss control effects (in that a particular practice limits the costs of those injuries that have occurred). We assume that the benefit parameters (maximum and minimum benefits) are exogenous relative to the choices made by the firms in our survey and do not model benefit determination here. 

The OSH Act mandated the Secretary of Labor with responsibility for developing and maintaining a national system for collection and analysis of work injury and illness statistics. In 1971 (the initial year that the OSH Act took effect), the Secretary of Labor delegated this responsibility to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), within the Department of Labor. Since that time BLS has performed a national Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, while OSHA has retained responsibility for enforcing compliance with the recordkeeping provisions of the Part 1904 of the OSHA regulations. 

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