Sue City For Job-Related Injury Data

By ARI PAUL

The New York Committee of Occupational Safety and Health is suing the Bloomberg administration for an alleged failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Law request concerning public employee work-related injury and illness data.

JOEL SHUFRO: Pressed Mayor for data.

"A law passed by the City Council two years ago requires all of the agencies to forward information to the Mayor's Office [which] must use part of the information for a public report," said Larry Cary, a NYCOSH attorney, in an e-mail. "NYCOSH sought release of the information not included in the report to better understand what is happening and be able to advocate for risk reduction programs."

Couldn't Get Data

On May 7, NYCOSH Executive Director Joel Shufro sent Mayor Bloomberg a FOIL request for all such data sent to his office in the last year. The Mayor's Office responded with a CD that did not have the information Mr. Shufro had requested, Mr. Cary said. The NYCOSH head appealed, but it was denied on June 5 because, as the complaint stated, the "Mayor's Office did not have the records it was required to."

NYCOSH filed another FOIL request on June 14, which was denied. In response to NYCOSH's second appeal, Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeffrey Friedlander formally responded July 31, "this office does not receive or maintain a record that contains all the information listed in the provision of law. FOIL does not require that a government agency, in responding to a request, create a record that does not already exist."

According to Mr. Cary, city workers filed 14,000 claims last year. The purpose of forcing the city to retain information on worker injuries is so that it can mitigate injury rates in the future. "Our suspicion is that if they don't have the material, they are not abiding by the law," he said.