After an excruciatingly long wait, OSHA has issued its revised injury and illness reporting and recordkeeping requirements for employers regarding the 300 and 301 forms they are expected to file electronically with the agency.
"OSHA will use these data to intervene through strategic outreach and enforcement to reduce worker injuries and illnesses in high-hazard industries,” said OSHA Administrator Doug Parker.
“The safety and health community will benefit from the insights this information will provide at the industry level, while workers and employers will be able to make more informed decisions about their workplace's safety and health," he added.
The rule generally will become effective on Jan. 1, 2024, with data submission requirements beginning on March 2, 2024. The rule was originally proposed in 2013and was supposed to go into effect in 2017 but was delayed due to legal challenges brought by employer groups, which are likely to be renewed.
This rule reverts to a prior regulation OSHA had published near the end of the Obama administration, which was later withdrawn by the Trump administration and hung fire until just recently.
The new final rule is expected to draw further legal challenges, which could very well delay or prevent its ultimate implementation. Employers all along have objected to OSHA making the collected information public by publishing it online. explain attorneys for the law firm of Morgan Lewis.
In the past, employers covered by OSHA’s recordkeeping regulations collected and maintained information regarding covered work-related injuries and illnesses. Generally, OSHA only gained access to those records as part of an onsite inspection, or on occasion as part of specific written requests.
Under the revised regulation, however, employers in “high risk” industries with 100 or more employees at one establishment must electronically provide certain information on their OSHA 300 and 301 forms to OSHA annually. Importantly, employers must include their company name in their electronic submissions which then will be made public in a searchable online database.
The high-risk industries listed in the rule’s appendix include warehousing and storage, wholesales trade, and the various modal freight transportation industries including road, air and trucking operations.
OSHA contends that “expanded public access to establishment-specific, case specific injury and illness data” will allow various stakeholders, including the general public, to “make more informed decisions about workplace safety and health at a given establishment.,” say attorneys with the law firm of Morgan Lewis.
Employers subject to OSHA’s recordkeeping regulations can take certain steps now to comply with the new requirements and limit citation liability, they point out.
Industries labeled “high risk” should begin to develop a process for collecting the information detailed in the 300 and 301 forms electronically, to the extent that this is not already being done, to assist in meeting the electronic submission deadline.
These employers should also review their injury and illness reporting procedures to ensure that such programs are reasonable and do not discourage injury and illness reporting.
Employers should develop procedures so that if an establishment reaches the 100 or 250 employee thresholds in the regulation, the employer receives notification so that it can be in a position to comply with the new electronic submission requirements.
The Morgan Lewis attorneys say that the cost and resources necessary to implement electronic data collection and maintenance will be significant. “The cost and resources necessary to implement electronic data collection and maintenance will be significant,” the attorneys stress.