Minnesota Sees Improvements in Injuries

Minnesota had an estimated 2.9 OSHA-recordable, nonfatal, workplace injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time-equivalent (FTE) workers in 2023, The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry said.
While that is down sharply from 3.8 cases per 100 FTE workers in 2022, it is still higher than the 2023 national rate of 2.7 cases of illness or injury per 100 FTE workers, according to the department’s annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
“These survey results are a good reminder about how important it is for workplaces to focus attention each day to safety and health programs that improve safety and health outcomes for workers, reduce preventable work-related injuries and illnesses, and ensure more workers go home safe and healthy at the end of their work shift,” said Labor Commissioner Nicole Blissenbach.
In 2023, Minnesota’s employment covered by the survey was approximately 2.85 million workers, compared to 2.79 million workers in 2022.
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The Department of Labor is suing a Parkston, South Dakota company, accusing it of firing an employee who complained about safety concerns.
The agency is demanding that TrailManor be compelled to restore the employment of Christian Napton to his former position, as well as provide him back pay, front pay and “compensatory damages, and emotional distress damages.”
Napton worked for the company making recreational trailers from July 18, 2023 to Dec. 5, 2023 as a laborer and production lead.
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Caterpillar has introduced a program that encourages its leadership participants to begin thinking and acting differently about how they lead and manage safety.
The five-session MindShift for Leaders program offers an alternative to conventional methods of managing safety systems that center around designing policies, standard work and processes based on how managers think people should work, versus how they actually work, and toward building more error-tolerant systems.
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