The New Year will be starting off with new rules from OSHA.
Recently, OSHA announced that it has made two key changes to it’s recordkeeping rule. Industries that have proven to have low incident rates of illness and injury are being added to the partially exempt list for recordkeeping. This change is to ensure that attention is being paid to industries with the most accidents, injuries and deaths, saving time and manpower that can go to the right areas.
There are certain cases in which even exempt industries must report accidents. According to OSHA’s website, these include:
- Any employee fatality as a result of a work-related incident.
- Any in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees as a result of a work-related incident.
- Any employee amputation as a result of a work-related incident.
- Any employee loss of an eye as a result of a work-related incident.
All work-related fatalities must be reported within 8 hours; hospitalizations, amputations and loss of eyes must be reported within 24 hours. If an accident happens within 30 days of the event, it must be reported to OSHA, again, even if your industry is exempt. In cases where an accident occurs after 30 days have passed, you still have to keep a record of it unless you have been deemed exempt.
For any companies that are no longer exempt from the recordkeeping rule, some steps must be taken to assure compliance. You will need to familiarize yourself with forms:
- 300: The Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
- 300A: Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
- 301: Injury and Illness Incident Report
Companies that are newly exempt are no longer required to turn in the Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses report for 2014. This information is unnecessary from now on for the industries listed below in the appropriate link.
Though there were only a few changes, there is a lot of information to take in, especially for companies that are new to the listed forms. To clear up any confusion, here are a few links that should help:
- List of industries that are partially exempt from OSHA’s recordkeeping rule:https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/ppt1/RK1exempttable.html
- List of companies that were once exempt, but now have to keep records:https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014/reporting_industries.html
- A tutorial to help once exempt companies that are being required to keep records begin the process: https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/tutorial.html
These updates to OSHA’s recordkeeping rules go into effect (and must be adhered to) on January 1st, 2015.