This is the first year that the Occupational Safety and Heath Administration’s (OSHA) expanded injury and illness reporting requirements take effect for employers in certain “high-hazard” industries. By March 2, 2024, covered employers will be required to submit “OSHA 300” Logs and “OSHA 301” Incident Reports to OSHA (in addition to the reporting of annual “OSHA 300A” Summaries, which is already required). The agency proposed an earlier version of this rule in 2016, but that version was withdrawn under the Trump Administration in 2017.
OSHA’s new rule implementing this change was issued in July 2023, and it applies to establishments (typically single physical work locations) with 100 or more employees in “high-hazard” industries. These industries are listed in Appendix B to the applicable OSHA regulation and include manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, retail, and wholesale employers, as well as certain health care employers (e.g., hospitals, among others). Employers can use OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) Coverage Application website to determine whether they are required to electronically submit data to OSHA.
In its press release announcing the new rule, OSHA noted that it will use the information for “strategic outreach and enforcement” aimed at protecting workers in high-hazard industries. OSHA will make data it collects publicly available and searchable online, and the agency believes public access to this information will promote worker health and safety. As we have discussed, this data can also be useful to employers to identify potential risks to workers in their industries, although we note that many employers have expressed concerns about potential misuse of the data.
Employers should be aware that OSHA’s existing requirement for reporting OSHA 300A Summaries remains in place. Specifically, establishments with 20-249 employees in “high-hazard” industries listed in Appendix A to the applicable OSHA regulation — as well as all establishments with 250 or more employees that are required to maintain OSHA 300 Logs — must submit OSHA 300A Summaries annually by March 2.
In addition, all employers required to keep OSHA 300 Logs of employee injuries and illnesses must post their annual OSHA 300A Summaries, which contain information about recordable incidents over the prior year. An OSHA 300A Summary must be certified by a company official and then posted at the workplace from February 1 through April 30. Employers that are partially exempt from OSHA recordkeeping obligations, including in lower-risk industries, are not subject to these requirements.
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