OSHA notifies employers with high injury and illness rates and places more onus on employers In April 2009, more than 13,500 employers received letters from OSHA warning them that their employee injury and illness rates were more than twice the national average. While the national average is 2.1 injuries or illnesses that result in days away from work, restricted work or job transfer for every 100 full-time employees, this group had 5.0 or more. Although letters are sent out every year, the tone of a press release announcing the letters differed from recent years. Jordan Barab, Acting Administrator of OSHA, noted, “Employers whose businesses have injury and illness rates this high need to take immediate steps to protect their workers.” Emphasis is placed on the employers’ responsibility for workplace safety. Well-known for writing the popular worker safety blog, “Confined Spaces” in the early and mid 2000s, Barab was a critic of OSHA under the Bush administration.