Longshore Program
About the Defense Base Act Case Summary Reports
Disclaimer:
The OWCP Defense Base Act Case Summary Reports are compiled from data maintained by the Department of Labor, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (OWCP), Division of Federal Employees', Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation (DFELHWC), in the administration of the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act and its extensions. These reports do not constitute the complete or official casualty statistics of civilian contractor injuries and deaths. They are offered as general information to the public who may be interested in the scope of civilian government contracting overseas.
See the Defense Base Act Page for more information about the Defense Base Act.
How is the data collected?
The OWCP, DFELHWC, collects and maintain claim data in the OWCP Workers' Compensation System (OWCS) primarily for workload and performance management purposes.
Under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation and its extensions, including the Defense Base Act (DBA), employers are required to report on-the-job injuries and deaths of their workers within ten days of their occurrence. The DFELHWC creates cases in OWCS based on these reports. Cases are also created based on claims submitted by injured workers and their survivors in the event of death, even if the injury or death has been reported by the employer. Only one case is created for each occurrence.
What do the numbers in these reports represent?
The numbers in each report represent the cumulative number of new DBA cases created during the period specified. The numbers do not represent the number of injuries or deaths that occurred during this period.
What are the three types of reports?
Since 2003, as civilian contracting activities overseas have increased, interest in the Defense Base Act has also grown. In response to public requests for data, DFELHWC began reporting the cumulative number of new DBA cases created each fiscal year, sorted by employer, by insurance carrier, and by country.
What do the Case Types stand for?
NLT = no lost time
LTO = lost time 3 days or less
LT4 = lost time 4 days or more
DEA = death
COP = salary continuation
The OWCP categorizes cases into the above 6 types based on the type of compensation that may be payable. The codes do not indicate that compensation is being paid or has been paid, only that compensation may be payable.
Lost time compensation is not payable in cases with no lost time (NLT) or lost time of three days of less (LT0). Compensation for disability is payable if there is lost time of 4 days or more (LT4). Included in the LT4 category are cases in which time loss compensation is not paid but where either a scheduled award or a lump sum settlement is payable or paid. Click here for more information about the different types of Disability Benefits under the Act.
All death cases are coded DEA.
If the information available shows that the injured employee may be receiving salary or other payments from the employer and the insurance carrier has not yet begun paying compensation, the case is categorized as COP. This is a temporary case type, and the code may change prior to the case being closed.
The case type of any case may be changed based on subsequent claim information. For example, an NLT case may be changed to LT4 if we receive information that the injured employee who initially suffered no lost time is now disabled for more than three days from work. Or an LT4 case may be changed to DEA if the disabled employee later dies of the injuries.
What do the Nations mean?
The Nation indicates the country where the injury or death occurred.
Why is the nationality of the injured or killed workers not shown?
While the DFELHWC does track the nationality of workers injured or killed under any of the laws administered by the program, this information is not required to create a claim (voluntarily collected) and may not be provided for all claims. Therefore, it is not representative of the whole of claims created. Under the LHWCA and its extensions, nationality is only relevant in a small number of cases in which benefits payable to aliens (not citizens) and non-residents of the
Why are some employers omitted from the reports?
In order to safeguard the privacy of the injured workers and the benefit claimants, the DFELHWC applies the "Rule of 7" to these reports. This rule minimizes one's ability to identify the injured or killed worker by associating the employer with a specific incident described in the news media and other sources. If an employer has fewer than seven cases in any Case Type category, the actual number of cases is not shown. However, the numbers are counted toward the total at the bottom of the report. That is also why the number of employers listed does not match the totals at the bottom of the page.
Why are some employers shown by different names?
The employer name is entered in OWCS based on the name shown on the Employer's First Report of Injury. If a corporation conducts business under multiple names or divisions, the subdivisions or "doing business as" names are entered. There are also minor typographical errors and punctuation discrepancies in these reports which result in the same company shown under different names, although we continually monitor the list to correct such discrepancies where possible.
Why is AIG not listed on your Carrier Report?
Insurance carriers are listed by the company name that issued the insurance policy, not necessarily by its corporate name. Therefore, one insurance company may have multiple subsidiaries providing DBA insurance, and these subsidiaries are shown as separate entities in these reports.
What does "Employer Pending, "Carrier Pending", or "Nation Pending" mean?
While new cases may no longer be created without the Employer prior to migration to the OWCS system, new cases were created without the Employer, Carrier, or injury Nation information. The correct information will be entered once it is available, which will make the data more fluid.
Why are there "Uninsured Employers" listed in the Carrier Report?
If an employer failed to secure DBA insurance for its workers and an injury occurred, the employer itself is responsible for the payment of benefits. Rather than leaving the insurance carrier data field blank, such cases are identified as "Uninsured Employers".
Why does DOL not show the names of workers who were injured or killed in these reports?
Claim records maintained by the OWCP are protected by the Privacy Act. Personally identifiable information is withheld to safeguard the privacy and security of the claimants.
How often is the data updated?
OWCS data is updated continuously as new information is entered into the system. Therefore, the number of new cases changes daily. To ensure consistency of the information released to the public, case summaries are updated once, at the close of each quarter, and the reports are available until they are updated at the beginning of the following quarter. Each report represents a "snapshot" of the data as it exists in the OWCS on the date the report is generated.