Work-related injury underreporting among young workers: Prevalence, gender differences, and explanations for underreporting

• Based on data collected from 21,345 young Canadian workers in 2011–2012, we found that 21% of respondents had experienced at least one lost-time work-related injury in their short careers.
• Just over half of individuals who experienced a lost time injury reported the work-related injury to both their employer and a doctor. Nearly 22% reported the injury to their employer but not to a doctor, while only 1% reported the injury to a doctor and not to their employer. The remaining responses (27%) reported the time lost injury to neither their employer nor a doctor.
• Ten reasons were provided by respondents for report avoidance with the most common ones being perceived low severity of the injury, negative reactions of others such as employers, and ambiguity about whether the injury was caused by work.
• Additional analysis revealed that males were more likely than females to cite concern about their self identity for not reporting injuries.

IntroductionAlthough notifying an employer of a lost-time work-related injury is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions, employees frequently do not report such injuries.MethodBased on data from 21,345 young part-time Canadian workers (55% male), we found that 21% of respondents had experienced at least one lost-time injury, with about half reporting the injury to an employer and a doctor.ResultsRespondents provided 10 reasons for avoiding reporting lost-time injuries, with perceived low severity of the injury, negative reactions of others, and ambiguity about whether work caused the injury as the most common ones. Additional analysis of these categories revealed that young males cited concern about their self-identity as a reason for not reporting an injury more often than young females did. We discuss the findings in terms of implications for management practice (i.e., educating young workers about accurate injury reporting) and public policy.Practical applicationsTargeted campaigns should be developed for young workers, especially young male workers, who are less likely to report injuries than young female workers, to understand the importance of and to encourage injury reporting.