OSHA requires that all work-related injuries and illnesses be recorded. To do this we must first determine which cases are recordable. This is done by considering the following:
· Is the case an injury or illness?
· Does it meet OSHA’s requirements for being work-related?
· If it’s an illness, what is OSHA’s classification?
· If it’s an injury, is it serious enough to report?
It’s important to understand that to OSHA there is a very real difference between an injury and illness that should be reported or just recorded. Not all recordable injuries rise to the level of being reportable. Employers are required to record all work-related:
· Illnesses
· Deaths
· Injuries that result in:
o Days away from work
o Any loss of consciousness, even just for a couple of seconds
o Restrict ted work activity
o Transfer to another job
o Medical treatment other than first aid
OSHA requires that our company report any work-related deaths or hospitalization of 3 or more employees to the nearest OSHA office within 8 hours of the accident. It’s important to remember that you MUST report all work-related accidents, injuries and illnesses so that they can be recorded.
Our company makes an important determination when recording our injuries and illnesses; whether they are work-related or not. However, this is not your worry. When an injury occurs, report it to your supervisor including what you were doing at the time of the accident, the location and why you were at that location. An injury is work-related when it occurs while the employee is engaged in activities directly associated with their job, regardless of location. Let’s look at a few examples:
· An employee is injured while traveling between workplaces. This injury is work-related.
· Another employee is injured while on the way from home to a client’s office. His home is considered his primary office. This is also work-related.
· A third employee is injured while playing tag football on break in the company’s parking lot. This is NOT work-related.
Injuries are immediate, so it’s easy to determine where you were and what you were doing at the time of the injury. This information is more difficult to determine with a work-related illness. This determination is usually made by a medical professional by establishing if the illness resulted from or was made worse by agents or conditions in the workplace. SDSs (Safety Data Sheets) identify symptoms of exposure and are used to determine if an illness was caused by workplace hazardous substances.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What types of injuries must be reported to OSHA?
An employee runs to the bank while on break and is injured. Is it work-related?
COMPANY: ______SAFETY MEETING
JOB/DEPT: ______SAFETY TRAINING
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EMPLOYEE SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: ______
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Supervisor's Signature Date
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