Safety Tidbit 3.02 – Electronic Submission of Injury Reports

Safety Tidbit 3.02 – Electronic Submission of Injury Reports

Reference(s): OSHA Injury Tracking Application

Well it’s finally here, Electronic OSHA Recordkeeping.  You get to start by submitting your Form 300A information into the system by December 1, 2017. Interestingly, the rule is already effective and for you employers with 250 or more employees you will be putting everything online (e.g. 300, 301, and 300A). 

Notice, OSHA downplays the “certain industries” part of the reporting requirement for the employers with 20-249 employees. Please pay close attention to the list.  Basically, about everyone is listed except those industries that have OSHA has partially exempted from recordkeeping per 1904.2(a)(1) due to historically low injury rates.

Who: Establishments with 250 or more employees that are currently required to keep OSHA injury and illness records, and establishments with 20-249 employees that are classified in certain industries with historically high rates of occupational injuries and illnesses.

What: Covered establishments with 250 or more employees must electronically submit information from OSHA Forms 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), and 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report). Covered establishments with 20-249 employees must electronically submit information from OSHA Form 300A.

When: The requirement becomes effective on January 1, 2017. The new reporting requirements will be phased in over two years. In 2017, all covered establishments must submit information from their completed 2016 Form 300A. In 2018, covered establishments with 250 or more employees must submit information from all completed 2017 forms (300A, 300, and 301) by July 1, 2018, and covered establishments with 20-249 employees must submit information from their completed 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, covered establishments must submit the information by March 2.

How: OSHA will provide a secure website that offers three options for data submission. First, users will be able to manually enter data into a web form. Second, users will be able to upload a CSV file to process single or multiple establishments at the same time. Last, users of automated recordkeeping systems will have the ability to transmit data electronically via an API (application programming interface). We will provide status updates and related information here as it becomes available.

Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

P.S. If you have an interesting safety or health question please let me know.