OSHA Reinstates the Electronic Illness and Injury Reporting Requirements for High-Hazard Employers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a final rule requiring certain employers to electronically submit injury and illness information (that they are already required to keep) to OSHA. This obligation is similar to one that was imposed under the Obama Administration but then largely rescinded under the Trump Administration.

OSHA’s recordkeeping regulation requires employers with more than 10 employees in most industries to keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses: OSHA Form 300 (the log of work-related injuries and illnesses); OSHA Form 301 (the injury and illness report); and OSHA Form 300A (the annual summary of work-related injuries and illnesses). Employers with 250 or more employees in industries that must routinely keep OSHA injury and illness records, as well as employers with 20-249 employees in certain high-hazard industries, are currently required to electronically submit their Form 300A information to OSHA annually.

The final rule will now require employers with 100 or more employees in certain designated high-hazard industries to electronically submit information from their OSHA Forms 300 and 301 each year. Notably, some of the establishment-specific data will be published online (without worker-specific information), for the stated purpose of allowing the public to make more informed decisions about workplace safety and health at a given establishment. Ultimately, OSHA believes, this will lead to the reduction of occupational injuries and illnesses.