The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health on Wednesday released its annual report on employers across the country whose allegedly precarious working conditions have led to deaths or serious injuries, with covid-19 safety losses now on its radar.
While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration identified 1,945 workplace deaths from covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, National COSH said in its report that the number is likely to be higher, citing an increase in deaths in the United States since 2020.
OSHA’s figure “is only a small fraction of the more than 494,000 working-age Americans, between the ages of 18 and 64, who died of the disease during about the same time period,”
; the report said.Amazon Inc., which joined the list in 2019 and 2020, was renamed because National COSH noted a pattern of worker deaths in its stocks.
Other national companies that were added to the list of alleged lax security protocols for covid-19 were Starbucks Corp. and Refresco Beverages US Inc., which according to National COSH violated the rules for safe distance and personal protective equipment.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Dollar General Corp. was named for allegedly unsafe working conditions. National COSH claimed that Hilton’s daily household demands often cause injuries and that understaffed Dollar General stores repeatedly exposed workers to crime.
Several smaller companies were added to the list, including Mayfield Consumer Products in Mayfield, Kentucky, whose executives allegedly instructed workers to stay in service when a tornado swept through the city in early December. Nine workers were killed, according to National COSH.
As for the named companies, National COSH said, “The incidents that take the lives of workers or expose them to dangerous risks are not ‘freak accidents.’ These events can be foreseen – and prevented – if employers follow proper safety protocols.”
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