State May Be Undercounting Employee Deaths From COVID-19, Worker Reps Say

Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 0

Worker advocates in North Carolina say the state may be undercounting the number of employees who have died from COVID-19, according to a newspaper report.

Labor groups say limited safety inspections and a lackluster reporting system have made it difficult to calculate the number of deaths that are due to workplace exposure, The News & Observer reported.

Advocates say the state Department of Labor’s count of 26 workplace fatalities related to COVID-19 in 2020 is probably a “severe undercount,” the newspaper reported.

A department spokesperson told the newspaper it was “unlikely that work-related fatalities are significantly being undercounted,” but she said it was possible that some deaths were unreported or not traced to an on-the-job exposure.

The 26 deaths were among 91 reported workplace deaths in 2020. The 91 deaths were the most in at least a decade in North Carolina, according to the newspaper.

The director of the Western North Carolina Workers' Center told the newspaper that the 26 deaths tied to COVID-19 seem low. 

The Department of Labor received more than 4,800 complaints from workers regarding the virus last year, the newspaper reported.