Dive Brief:
- Those employers required to keep track of workplace injuries and illnesses on OSHA Form 300 must publicly post their 2017 results on Form 300A by Feb 1. The rule does not apply to companies with 10 or fewer workers.
- Qualifying incidents that must be recorded on Form 300 include all work-related deaths and injuries or illnesses that involve a worker's loss of consciousness; restricted work activity or transfer to another position; days away from work; or medical treatment past first aid. Unlike the statistics on Form 300A, the information on Form 300 contains employee data that must be kept confidential.
- Form 300A must be posted from Feb. 1 through April 30 where company notices are normally displayed. OSHA can issue an other-than-serious citation for failure to follow the posting and reporting rules related to Form 300A. The maximum fine can be as high as $12,934 per violation.
Dive Insight:
Beginning in 2018, and with the exception of some state plans, those construction companies with more than 20 employees will be required to submit electronically to OSHA information from their 2017 300A forms by July 1. Starting in 2019, information from 300A must be submitted electronically by March 2. The electronic submission deadline for 2016 data was December 15, 2017.
In November, OSHA said it would issue a proposal to amend the controversial Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses electronic reporting rule so that employers would not have to submit Forms 300 or 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) electronically. When OSHA first announced its electronic reporting requirements, construction groups pushed back, primarily because the agency said its intention was to make information from those forms available online.
Groups like the National Association of Home Builders argued that this planned public reveal violated employers' First and Fifth Amendment rights, and also would display propriety information like the hours their employees worked. Many in the industry also claimed that showing only accident and illness information did not give a complete picture of a company's overall safety program, nor did it show what steps employers took to keep the reported incident from happening in the future.
