OSHA Publishes Proposed Rule that would Reinstate and Expand Reporting Requirements Rolledback Under the Trump Administration
A recently proposed rule published by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) would re-instate and strengthen the 2016 injury and death posting requirements for employers with at least 100 employees in hazardous industries.
The move comes after the agency rolled back the requirement for employers with at least 250 employees to electronically submit their OSHA From 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report) to OSHA under the Trump administration.
The rule was rolled back in 2018 after employers claimed that the agency would use the records to publically shame employers with high rates of workplace injury and death. OSHA responded to these by modifying the rule to only require employers to submit summary data on OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).
The recent proposal seeks to reinstate the original 2016 rule and expand it’s coverage from employers with 250 employees to those with 100 or more employees. If approved, the rule would also include an expanded list of employers designated in high-hazard industries based on their industry code categorized by the North American Industry Classification System (NACIS).
The new rule would include two lists of employers with different compliance standards. It would update Appendix A to identify high-risk industries using the 2017 NACIS. Employers with more than twenty employees that are on the list would be required to submit Form 300A. A new Appendix B would be established to identify employers with 100 or more employees that have had an incident rate of 3.5% or more over a three-year period. Employers listed in Appendix B would be required to submit on Forms 300, 301, and 300A annually.
In a statement addressing the privacy concerns raised by employers which prompted the 2018 rollback of the original standard, the agency said that “[R]ecent advancements in technology [that] have reduced the risk that information that reasonably identifies individuals directly, such as name and contact information, will be disclosed to the public.” OSHA has confirmed its intent to make parts of the workplace injury and death data publically available if the rule is finalized.
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