Northern Safety Solutions Compliance Notice - OSHA Issues New Data Collection Ruling

Northern Safety Solutions Compliance Notice - OSHA Issues New Data Collection Ruling

Northern Safety Solutions
Compliance Notice - OSHA Issues New Data Collection Ruling

OVERVIEW

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a final rule that aims to modernize injury data collection in an effort to better inform workers, employers, the public, and OSHA about hazards in the workplace. OSHA is applying the insights of behavioral economics to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries and illnesses.

OSHA requires many employers to keep records of workplace injuries, illnesses and accidents in order to identify workplace hazards and prevent incidents. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that more than 3 million workers suffer some sort of workplace accident each year; however, little or no information about these incidents is shared with OSHA or made public.

The new rule will require employers in high-hazard industries to send required incident information directly to OSHA to be made public on their website. This new rule goes into effect August 10, 2016.

ACTION STEPS

Employers should become familiar with the new updates for reporting workplace incidents. As of August 10, the new rule will make workplace incidents public as a means to encourage employers to prevent hazards that cause injury and illnesses. The new reporting requirements will publicly demonstrate how safe and well managed an employer’s facilities are.

Access to injury data will also help OSHA target compliance assistance and enforcement resources where workers are at greatest risk. While this rule does not change an employer’s obligation to complete and retain injury and illness records under the Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses regulation, it is important to understand that incidents may now be made public. Availability of this data will enable prospective employees to identify workplaces where the risk of injury is lowest and encourage employers to make injury prevention a high priority.
Other Changes

The new rule now promotes an employee’s right to report injuries and illnesses without fear of retaliation from the employer. This is an attempt to keep the data on OSHA logs as complete and accurate as possible. Employers will be required to have a reasonable procedure for reporting work-related injuries that does not discourage employees from reporting incidents.

OSHA plans to create the largest publicly available data set of workplace injuries and illnesses, enabling researchers to study it to reveal injury causation, identify workplace safety hazards and the effectiveness of injury prevention methods. OSHA plans to remove personally identifiable information included in the data before making it publicly accessible.

Compliance Changes

For Establishments of 250+ Employees

Under the new rule, all establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping regulation must electronically submit to OSHA injury and illness information from OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301.

For Establishments of 20-249 Employees

Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain industries must electronically submit from OSHA Form 300A only.

For compliance assistance, please contact Ryan Wilson at (800) 296-5722 x3740 or .

July 2016

While every effort has been taken in compiling this information to ensure that its contents are totally accurate, neither the publisher nor the author can accept liability for any inaccuracies or changed circumstances of any information contained herein or for the consequences of any reliance placed upon it. This publication is distributed with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional advice or services. Readers should always seek professional advice before entering into any commitments.