A new government study adds to the growing body of evidence that employers and employees significantly underreport workplace injuries and illnesses.

The report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), appears to give credence to a yearlong federal program initiated Oct. 1 that scrutinizes how certain employers keep records of workers hurt on the job.

Among the findings, the GAO found that employees often underreport injuries and illness for fear of losing their job or being disciplined. The report said 67 percent of occupational health practitioners reported observing workers who feared losing their job or disciplinary action for reporting an injury; 46 percent said this fear led workers to underreport injuries. Labor representatives criticized mandatory drug testing as another cause of underreporting, according to the GAO report.

The report said employer safety incentive programs, which offer bonuses to workers for creating safe work sites, can also lead employees to underreport injuries.

More than half the occupational health practitioners surveyed said they felt pressure from employers to play down injuries or illnesses, and nearly half -- 47 percent -- felt similar pressure from employees.

The report was aimed chiefly at the inspection practices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The GAO criticized OSHA for excluding certain dangerous industries, such as amusement parks and freight transportation in the coastal and Great Lakes regions, in its workplace inspections.

. . . The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in early November that the number of nonfatal workplace injuries reported fell to 3.7 million last year from 4.2 million in 2008, but the GAO said that the data likely are incomplete.

The rest of the story . . . .