OSHA Strengthens Injury Reporting Requirements

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) passed a series of new injury reporting regulations earlier this month in an effort to reduce the rate of work-related fatalities, injuries and illnesses.

Employers have always been required to report work-related fatalities and injuries to the OSHA. Up until now, though, employers only had to report injuries requiring three or more days of hospitalization. This recent update strengthens OSHA's reporting requirements for employers, targeting a few specific areas. To learn more about these changes and how it will affect businesses, keep reading.

Under OSHA's new rule, employers must report all injuries which require hospitalization, as well as amputations and eye loss. Conventional wisdom should leave you to believe these incidents were already included in OSHA's previous reporting requirements, but this isn't the case. Injuries that resulted in eye loss and/or amputations did not require reporting. OSHA hopes these new changes will promote a safer work environment for America's some 75.3 million workers.

This new update also changes some of the existing rules regarding fatality reporting. All work-related fatalities must now be reported to OSHA within 8 hours of the incident occurring, and all hospitalizations regardless of the length of treatment.

OSHA noted, however, that they do not plan to send inspectors to the site of each and every work-related fatality. Instead, they are focusing on new ways to engage employers. How exactly does the Administration hope to accomplish this? Among other things, OSHA is introducing a new web-based portal that will allow employers to submit fatality and injury reports electronically. By eliminating the need for "snail mail," OSHA will receive updates in a more timely manner.

"OSHA will now receive crucial reports of fatalities and severe work-related injuries and illnesses that will significantly enhance the agency’s ability to target our resources to save lives and prevent further injury and illness. This new data will enable the agency to identify the workplaces where workers are at the greatest risk and target our compliance assistance and enforcement resources accordingly, said OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor Dr. David Michaels.

The new injury reporting requirements are scheduled to take effect starting January 1, 2015. OSHA is offering free training, advice and assistance to help companies better understand these requirements. For more information on OSHA's new injury reporting requirements, visit https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014/index.html.

What do you think of these new reporting requirements? Let us know in the comments section below!