City spends $4.8M a year on workers’ comp. Safety director to address ‘high injury rate’
On average, at least one person employed by the city of Tacoma is injured every day.
In the past five years, the city spent $26 million on workers’ compensation, or about $4.8 million per year.
That’s nothing to sneeze at, city management analyst Matthew Janzow said during a study session presentation in August.
“It could be anywhere in this room. It could be anywhere out in the field,” Janzow said. “It’s not just dollars … it’s real people.”
This month the city took a step toward addressing its high injury rate by hiring for a brand new safety director position. The safety director is responsible for developing a city-wide safety plan aimed at reducing workplace injuries.
Laurie Hardie, who previously was the divisional safety manager for WestRock Corp. in Georgia, has 16 years of experience in the field of workplace safety and will start on Monday. Hardie’s annual pay as safety director will be $139,360.
“I am honored and humbled by the opportunity to serve the City of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Utilities in this capacity,” Hardie said in a press release. “I look forward to getting to know the employees who work so hard each day to ensure that the needs of our community members and customers are met.”
For years, the city and Tacoma Public Utilities have tracked employee injury costs.
The most common injury is soft tissue, sprain and strain-type injuries. Most injuries occur within the first year of employment. Police, fire, solid waste and power departments have the highest risk of injuries, staff said.
“I was surprised to hear we’re injuring 1.2 employees per day — that’s alarming, that’s unacceptable,” John Lawrence, Utility Technology Services manager and a 32-year employee, told City Council and the TPU board on Aug. 20.
Compared to other jurisdictions, Tacoma has a high injury rate.
“What we discovered is that our incident rates are much higher than our industry peers and in some cases twice that of theirs,” Lawrence said.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7.2 out of 100 full-time employees with the city of Tacoma will be injured on the job. That’s higher than other governments both in the state (average 6 employees) and nationally (average 5 employees) and almost double the number of employees in the private sector (average 4 employees).
“Tacoma is the highest in every category,” Janzow said.
The city plans to continue its education and outreach for workplace safety across both the city of Tacoma and Tacoma Public Utilities.
“This initiative is sending a very strong message to employees across the entire city of Tacoma that safety truly is our priority,” Lawrence said.
