Last year, OSHA issued a new electronic reporting rule that requires employers with more than 250 employees in industries covered by the OSHA recordkeeping regulations, as well as employers with 20-249 employees in designated “high-risk industries” (including manufacturing, construction, and many healthcare establishments), to electronically submit injury and illness data from their OSHA 300 logs and related forms. Much of the information electronically will be made available to the public on OSHA’s website because, in OSHA’s view, “behavioral economics tells us that making information publicly available will ‘nudge’ employers to focus on safety.”

The original July 1, 2017 deadline by which covered employers were required to submit data from their Form 300A Annual Summary for 2016 was previously extended by OSHA in order to “provide the new administration the opportunity to review the new electronic reporting requirements prior to their implementation and allow affected entities sufficient time to familiarize themselves with the electronic reporting system.”   The deadline is now December 15, 2017. Accordingly, covered employers must log onto OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) and submit their 2016 OSHA Form 300A information electronically on or before December 15, 2017.

Whether OSHA will maintain the future electronic reporting requirements under the new rule remains to be seen. A recent OSHA press release indicates that “OSHA is currently reviewing the other provisions of its final rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, and intends to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking to reconsider, revise, or remove portions of that rule in 2018.” Considering the Trump administration’s record of scaling back Obama era government regulations, it would not be a surprise to see a change here as well.

Stay tuned for additional updates in 2018 …