OSHA has issued a final rule stating that establishments with more than 250 workers and those with 20-249 workers in certain NAICS codes, and farms with more than 20 employees, will electronically file the OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) but will not include the OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) or the OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report).

There had been passionate feedback on this issue surrounding the concern that electronic injury and illness submissions, as proposed, would reveal workers’ sensitive and detailed injury and illness information and impact worker privacy. After reviewing all of the comments on the issue, OSHA determined that collecting the data would expose sensitive worker information to a meaningful risk of exposure and that the best use of OSHA’s resources would be to focus on data it already receives, including a large set of useful data from Form 300A.

The omission of these forms does alleviate a large part of the employer reporting burden and addresses worker privacy. Perhaps only time will tell if other concerns will materialize - such as fear that posting the information will prompt future inspections or that the data will present a one-sided view of a company’s safety program to the public.

Under the final rule, employers would include their Employer Identification Number (EIN) when electronically submitting Injury and Illness Data to OSHA. As such, OSHA indicates the EIN, not confidential information, provides a methodological approach to match establishments and will make the data more useful for OSHA and BLS. OSHA says this could reduce duplicative reporting burdens on employers in the future.

With the final rule effective February 25, 2019, affected establishments will report 2018 Form 300A and their EIN by March 2, 2019.

State-Plan States will have 6 months after publication of the final OSHA rule to promulgate requirements that are substantially identical to those in 29 CFR Part 1904.

Blog Author

Diana Ludwig, STSC
Project Manager, Health & Safety Services
KERAMIDA Inc.

Contact Diana at dludwig@keramida.com