New Electronic Record Submission Rules for High-Hazard Industries

Fed-OSHA recently issued a long-awaited order that expands the rules regarding electronic record submission of work-related injury and illness information.  That order, which takes effect January 1, 2024, has now been posted in the Federal Register.

OSHA already requires most employers to maintain illness and injury logs and post a summary each year at their worksite, but only employers with 250 or more employees and businesses in certain high-hazard industries with 20 or more employees are required to provide their annual OSHA Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.  Under the new rules, however, as of 2024, in addition to their Form 300A, employers with 100 or more employees in designated high-hazard industries must electronically submit information from their Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report).

The new rules also require employers to include their legal company name with their electronic submissions.  To allow employers, employees, potential employees, employee representatives, current and potential customers, researchers, and the general public to access information about a company’s workplace safety and health record, some of the data will be published on OSHA’s website.  Although individually identifiable information on employees will not be publicly released, employer incident data and descriptions of injuries will be.

The new rules could significantly increase an employer’s exposure as OSHA will use the data to target some employers for inspections and potentially, to predetermine whether an employer should fall under its instance-by-instance citation policy.  In addition, OSHA may use the information to conduct targeted interviews of employees who have been injured instead of conducting interviews of random employees.

Now that much of the data collected will be made public, employers that are subject to the new rules should carefully evaluate all injuries and illnesses to make sure that the OSHA standards require them to be recorded before completing and submitting OSHA Forms 300, 301, and 300A.  To review the new rules, click here.

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