Categories: OSHA

On December 19, 2016, the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued a final rule amending its record keeping regulations, located at 29 C.F.R. Part 1904. The Amendment clarifies that a covered employer has an on-going obligation to create and maintain accurate records of recordable work-place injuries and illnesses. It did so in response to the decision in AKM LLC v. Secretary of Labor, 675 F.3d 752 (D.C. Cir. 2012).

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (“Act”) requires covered employers to create and preserve records of certain workplace injuries and illnesses that are prescribed by the Secretary of Labor. Pursuant to this delegated authority, OSHA has issued regulations that require covered employers to record workplace injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 301 Incident Report form and on the OSHA 300 Log form, within seven days of learning of a recordable workplace injury or illness, to review the Log for accuracy at the end of each calendar year and to correct any deficiencies found during the annual review.  A covered employer must prepare, certify and post annual summaries of the recordable workplace injuries and illnesses that occurred during the previous year by February 1 and keep them posted until April 30.  OSHA regulations further require covered employers to maintain its Logs, Incident Report forms and annual summaries for five calendar years and to make this information available to its employees, OSHA, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  OSHA may issue citations for violations of the Act, but must do so within six months after “the occurrence of any violation.”  29 U.S.C. § 658(c). The new continuing obligation provides the basis for record-keeping violations to be timely years after a reportable incident under the rationale of the AKM case.

When this final rule becomes effective on January 18, 2017, covered employers will have a continuing obligation to create and maintain accurate records of recordable workplace injuries and illnesses and to update their records during the five year retention period.

To comply with OSHA’s amended regulations, employers should:
  • Ensure that it completed OSHA 301 Incident Report forms for all recordable workplace injuries and illnesses that occurred during the previous year and ensure that its OSHA 300 Log form accurately reports all recordable workplace injuries and illnesses and, if appropriate, update the Log with any recordable workplace injuries and illnesses not previously recorded.
  • Conduct an audit of its OSHA 300 Log forms for the past five years to confirm that they accurately reported all recordable workplace injuries and illnesses that occurred during the past five years. The audit should also include a review of the employer’s OSHA 301 Incident Report forms to ensure that the employer completed forms for each recordable injury and illness during the past five years.
Back to Workforce Bulletin Blog

Search This Blog

Blog Editors

Related Services

Topics

Archives

Jump to Page

Subscribe

Sign up to receive an email notification when new Workforce Bulletin posts are published:

Privacy Preference Center

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Performance Cookies

These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.