New Reporting Requirements:
OSHA has issued a final rule that modifies recordkeeping and reporting requirements for employers. The most significant change requires an employer to notify OSHA within twenty-four (24) hours of when an employee suffers a work-related, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye. Under the prior rule, employers were only required to report in-patient hospitalizations of three employees or more. OSHA had not previously required employers to report amputations or losses of an eye. It should be noted that “amputations” include partial amputations, such as the loss of a fingertip, as well as medical amputations resulting from irreparable damage to a body part.
Employers are still required to report any fatality to OSHA within eight (8) hours of learning of the fatality. Employers also are required to report any death that occurs within thirty (30) days of a work-related injury, regardless of whether the death was a direct result of the injury.
Employers can report fatalities, in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye in any of the following ways:
- by telephone or in person to the OSHA Area Office nearest the site of the incident;
- by telephone to the OSHA toll-free central telephone number, 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742); or
- by electronic submission using the fatality/injury/illness reporting application located on OSHA’s public website at https://www.osha.gov/.
All employers, even those exempt from keeping injury and illness records, are subject to the reporting requirements described above.
New Recordkeeping Requirements for Certain Industries:
OSHA also updated the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. The previous list of exempt industries was based on the Standard Industrial Classification system (“SIC”). The new list is based on the North American Industry Classification System (“NAICS”).
This update will result in recordkeeping requirements for many previously exempt employers. For example, the following industries will now be required to keep injury and illness records: bakeries; automobile dealers; automotive parts, accessories and tire stores; lessors of real estate; consumer goods rental; commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing; ambulatory heath care services, community food and housing and emergency/other relief services; museums and similar institutions; and performing arts companies.
For a complete list of industries that are no longer exempt from the record-keeping requirements, please visit OSHA’s website here.