The Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration ("OSHA") is the federal agency within the Department of Labor that is tasked with reducing workplace hazards and implementing worker health and safety protections. To that end, federal regulation 29 CFR Part 1904 requires covered employers to prepare and maintain records, as well as promptly report, certain work-related illness and injuries.

On January 1, 2015, revised injury reporting rules went into effect and the list of industries exempt from OSHA reporting will shrink, impacting a variety of businesses once at least partially immune to OSHA's obligations. Businesses are now held to a higher reporting standard and must shift internal procedures in order to meet OSHA's revised regulations.

What Does this Mean for Your Company?

There are two main changes about which you need to be aware: additional reporting duties and fewer exempt industries.

Additional Reporting Duties

Currently, all work-related fatalities and the hospitalization of three or more employees must be reported to OSHA within eight hours. This rule has not changed.

However, after January 1, covered employers are also required to report the in-patient hospitalization of any single employee, resulting from a work-related incident. Further, the rules now require mandatory reporting by covered employers of any amputations or loss of an eye. The new reporting rules give a 24-hour deadline after learning of the incident in which to report it to OSHA.

Injuries may be reported by: (1) calling OSHA's 24 hour hotline; (2) calling the closest OSHA office during normal business hours; or (3) filling out a form online (available in the near future).

Fewer Exempt Industries

OSHA is reducing the number of industries that receive an exemption from its recordkeeping and reporting requirements. As of January 1, formerly "exempt" industries (such as automotive dealers, lessors of real estate, and companies that rent out industrial machinery) are now "covered" industries, and thus subject to OSHA's recordkeeping and reporting requirements. The updated list of exempt industries is available here.

Businesses with ten or fewer employers will still be exempt from OSHA's recordkeeping requirements regardless of industry type.

Key Points to Remember:

• All hospitalizations of a single employee, as well as all amputations and losses of an eye, must now be reported to OSHA within 24 hours of learning of the injury.
• Fewer industries are now exempt from OSHA requirements. Review the revised list to check for your industry.

Whether you are part of a new industry now held accountable to OSHA's reporting regulations or a business that has always been, it is imperative that internal procedures and reporting practices are reviewed in light of the January 1, 2015 regulatory updates.