WHO NEEDS TO REPORT WHAT AND WHEN?
At any time during the past year, have you had more than 10 employees and are not classified as a low hazard (exempt) industry?
Yes. If your company had more than ten (10) employees at any time during the last calendar year, you must keep OSHA injury and illness records unless your establishment is classified as a partially exempt industry under Section 1904.2.
Employers subject to OSHA’s recordkeeping rule are required to complete the OSHA Form 300A [see DOCUMENT LIBRARY / General Doc Library], Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, by February 1 and post the signed Annual Summary at the workplace from February 1 through April 30.
No. Employers that have had fewer than 10 employees at all times in the past year and those classified in low hazard industries are exempt from the 301a reporting requirement.
(1) If your company had ten (10) or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness records unless OSHA or the BLS informs you in writing that you must keep records under Section 1904.41 or Section 1904.42.
The final rule contains two categories of exemptions that, together, relieve most employers of the obligation routinely to record injuries and illnesses sustained by their employees. Section 1904.1 contains a “very small-employer” exemption: Employers need not record injuries or illnesses in the current year if they had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the previous year, unless required to do so pursuant to Sections 1904.41 or 1904.42. Section 1904.2 contains a “low-hazard industry” exemption: Individual business establishments are not required to keep records if they are classified in specific low-hazard retail, service, finance, insurance, or real estate industries.”
Have you had any workplace incidents that resulted in a fatality or hospitalization of 3 or more employees?
As required by Section 1904.39, all employers covered by the OSH Act must report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a fatality or the hospitalization of three or more employees.
Basic requirement. Within eight (8) hours after the death of any employee from a work-related incident or the in-patient hospitalization of three or more employees as a result of a work-related incident, you must orally report the fatality/multiple hospitalization by telephone or in person to the Area Office of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Department of Labor, that is nearest to the site of the incident
Section 1904.4 Recording Criteria
Section 1904.4 of the final rule contains provisions mandating the recording of work-related injuries and illnesses that must be entered on the OSHA 300 (Log) and 301 (Incident Report) forms. It sets out the recording requirements that employers are required to follow in recording cases.
Are there situations where an injury or illness occurs in the work environment and is not considered work-related?
Yes, an injury or illness occurring in the work environment that falls under one of the following exceptions is not work-related, and therefore is not recordable.
1904.5(b)(2) You are not required to record injuries and illnesses if …
(i) At the time of the injury or illness, the employee was present in the work environment as a member of the general public rather than as an employee.
(ii) The injury or illness involves signs or symptoms that surface at work but result solely from a non-work-related event or exposure that occurs outside the work environment.
(iii) The injury or illness results solely from voluntary participation in a wellness program or in flu shot, exercise class, racquetball, or baseball.
(iv) The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee eating, drinking, or preparing food or drink for personal consumption (whether bought on the employer’s premises or brought in). For example, if the employee is injured by choking on a sandwich while in the employer’s establishment, the case would not be considered work-related.
Note: If the employee is made ill by ingesting food contaminated by workplace contaminants (such as lead), or gets food poisoning from food supplied by the employer, the case would be considered work-related.
(v) The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee doing personal tasks (unrelated to their employment) at the establishment outside of the employee’s assigned working hours.
(vi) The injury or illness is solely the result of personal grooming, self medication for a non-work-related condition, or is intentionally self-inflicted.
(vii) The injury or illness is caused by a motor vehicle accident and occurs on a company parking lot or company access road while the employee is commuting to or from work.
(viii) The illness is the common cold or flu (Note: contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, hepatitis A, or plague are considered work-related if the employee is infected at work).
(ix) The illness is a mental illness. Mental illness will not be considered work-related unless the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an opinion from a physician or other licensed health care professional with appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner, etc.) stating that the employee has a mental illness that is work-related.
