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OSHA Recordkeeping

On January 1, 2002, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) revised recordkeeping rule took effect. The revised rule is intended to improve the system that employers use to track and record workplace injuries and illnesses.

Importance of Recordkeeping

Recordkeeping plays a vital role in business, whether it’s recording sales volume, tracking a product’s performance through quality control, or counting hits on your Web site. All of these are measures of the overall performance of your firm. So, too, are the frequency and severity of workplace injuries and illnesses. According to the final OSHA rule, recordkeeping serves three purposes. It provides:

1. information to employers;

2. information to OSHA; and

3. data needed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to generate important statistical information.

Although the final rule became effective on January 1, 2002, implementation of three provisions has been delayed until January 1, 2003. These provisions are the criteria for recording work-related hearing loss (§ 1904.10), the rule’s definition of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) (§ 1904.12), and the requirement that employers check the MSD column on the OSHA log when appropriate (the revised forms have a separate column for recording MSDs).

Important Changes From the Old Rule

The revised rule makes major changes in the scope of the rule, the required forms, the meaning of “work-related,” the recording criteria, the method of counting days, the annual summary, employee involvement, the privacy issue, and reporting information.

The Scope of the Rule

The rule’s scope has changed only slightly. The new rule continues to provide a partial exemption for employers with 10 or fewer employees. See 29 C.F.R. § 1904.1. However, OSHA has updated the list of service and retail industries partially exempt from the rule to reflect industry data. See § 1904.2.

The Required Forms

Three new recordkeeping forms must now be used:

1. OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses);

2. OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses); and

3. OSHA Form 301(Injury and Illness Incident Report).

These forms replace OSHA Form 200 (Log and Summary) and OSHA Form 101 (Supplemental Record). An employer must enter each recordable injury or illness on both OSHA Form 300 and OSHA Form 301 within seven calendar days. See § 1904.29(b)(3). Such records can also be kept on computers or on equivalent forms (e.g., insurance forms). See §§ 1904.29(b)(4)(5).

The Meaning of “Work-Related”

Work-related injury or illness is a basic component of the recordkeeping rule (both old and revised). Pursuant to § 1904.4, each employer must record each fatality, injury, and illness that is work-related, is a new case, and meets other general recording criteria. The new rule, however, makes some changes to the determination of work-relatedness under § 1904.5.

• First, there must be a significant aggravation of a pre-existing condition by a workplace event or exposure for the injury or illness to be considered work-related. See § 1904.5(a). (The old rule considered any aggravation to be a work-related injury or illness.)
• Second, the revised rule adds further exceptions to the definition of work-relatedness - for example, eating, drinking, or preparing one’s own food, and contracting colds and flus are no longer considered work-related. See § 1904.5(b)(2). The old rule listed only three exceptions to the presumption of work-relatedness:
  • members of the general public;
  • symptoms arising on premises totally due to outside factors; and
  • the parking lot and recreational facility exception.

Recording Criteria

The most comprehensive changes have occurred in the portions of the rule related to criteria for recording. First, the use of different criteria for work-related illnesses and injuries are eliminated. See § 1904.4. Note that under the former rule, all work-related illnesses were recordable. Now, pursuant to § 1907(a), work-related illnesses are recordable only if they meet the following general recording criteria:

• death;
• days away from work;
• restricted work;
• transfer to another job;
• medical treatment beyond first aid;
• loss of consciousness; or
• diagnosis of a significant injury or illness by a doctor.

The method of recording restricted-work cases has also changed. Under the revised rule, if the employee works only partial days or is restricted from performing routine job functions, this must be recorded. See § 1907(b)(4).

Other changes with respect to recording criteria relate to specific disorders. Under the revised rule, all injuries from needlesticks and sharps involving contamination by another person’s blood are recordable. In the past, those injuries were recorded only in limited circumstances. See § 1904.8. Also, musculoskeletal disorders are now treated as all other injuries or illnesses. See § 1904.12.

Method of Counting Days

Important changes have occurred in the way employers are required to count days. The prior recordkeeping rule included the term “lost workdays.” This has been eliminated. In its place, the revised rule requires you to record days away from work, days of restricted work, and transfer to another job. See § 1904.7(b)(3).

Furthermore, days are counted based on calendar days, not workdays as was the case under the prior rule. Also, there is now a 180-day cap on the number of days counted; in the past, there was no cap. Thus, if an injury or illness results in more than 180 calendar days, entering 180 in the “total days away from work” column is sufficient. See § 1904.7(b)(3).

The Annual Summary

There are two changes with respect to the annual summary. Under the old rule, the annual summary had to be certified either by the employer or by the employee who supervised the preparation of the log and summary, and you had to post the summary during February each year. Now, only a company executive can certify the annual summary, and you must post it for three months (from February 1 through April 30) annually. See §§ 1904.32(b)(3)(6).

Employee Involvement

Several provisions to foster more employee involvement have been added to the revised rule. For example, employers are required to establish procedures to report injuries and illnesses and to tell their employers how to report an injury or illness. Furthermore, employees and former employees are allowed access to their individual OSHA 301 forms. See § 1904.35.

The Privacy Issue

Privacy has increasingly become an issue in recent years. The revised rule addresses concerns about employee privacy in a number of ways. According to the OSHA Fact Sheet, the revised rule:

• prohibits employers from entering an individual’s name on Form 300 for certain types of injuries or illnesses;
• allows employers not to describe the nature of sensitive injuries where the employee’s identity would be known;
• gives employee representatives access only to the portion of Form 301 that contains no personal information; and
• requires employers to remove employees’ names before providing data to persons not provided access rights under the rule.

(See §§ 1904.29 and 1904.35 of the rule for the complete wording of the privacy provisions summarized above.)

Reporting Information

Fatality reporting requirements have changed slightly. Under the old rule, employers had to report all work-related fatalities. However, the revised rule creates exceptions to the reporting requirement for motor vehicle accidents on public streets (which do not occur in construction zones) and for accidents involving commercial airplanes, trains, subways, or buses (unless required to keep such records by another statute). See §§ 1904.39(b)(3)(4).

Note that the revised rule does require employers to report all fatal heart attacks that occur in the work environment. See § 1904.39(b)(5).

For More Help

OSHA has provided extensive guidance on the revised rule on its Web site: http://www.osha.gov.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Journal of Workers Compensation is a quarterly review of risk management and cost containment strategies published by Standard Publishing in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit our web site, www.standardpublishingcorp.com, or contact the editor at 800-682-5759, extension 222, or subscription services at extension 228.

riskVue | The webzine for risk management professionals
May 2002