OSHA Recordkeeping System

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act) created two new federal agencies the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the U.S. Department of Labor and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The role of OSHA was to promulgate and enforce national workplace standards designed to protect the safety and health of the American worker, while the role of NIOSH was to sponsor research, train occupational safety and health professionals and recommend criteria for workplace standards to OSHA. 

The OSH Act mandated the Secretary of Labor with responsibility for developing and maintaining a national system for collection and analysis of work injury and illness statistics. In 1971 (the initial year that the OSH Act took effect), the Secretary of Labor delegated this responsibility to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), within the Department of Labor. Since that time BLS has performed a national Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, while OSHA has retained responsibility for enforcing compliance with the recordkeeping provisions of the Part 1904 of the OSHA regulations. 

In 1971, OSHA promulgated the initial recordkeeping requirements at Title 29 CFR Part 1904. These recordkeeping regulations required employers with eleven or more employees to maintain an annual log of woik injuries and illnesses, except for minor, first aid injuries. The log form is entitled Log and Summary of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, (OSHA No. 200 form) and is required to be maintained by employers in all workplace establishments covered by the OSH Act. Only certain low hazard industries are specifically exempted from the annual recordkeeping requirements of the regulations. The exempted industries include certain retail industries, all finance, insurance, and real estate industries and certain service industries. However, some employers in each exempted industry are required to maintain the OSHA-200 log from time to time to provide a statistical sample for the Annual Surveys performed by BLS. 

the BLS Armual Surveys provide the U.S. public with annualized frequency statistics concerning cases and work loss time associated with employee injuries and illnesses. In 1992, the Armual Survey began 

---

Many cases that are recorded in the OSHA system are also compensable under the State workers compensation system, but many others are not However, the two systems have different purposes and scopes. The OSHA recordkeeping system is intended to collect, compile, and analyze uniform and consistent nationwide data on occupational injuries and illnesses. The workers compensation systan, in contrast, is not designed primarily to generate and collect data but is intended primarily to provide medical coverage and compensation for workers who are killed, injured, or made ill at work, and varies in coverage from one State to another. 

Like your recordkeeping system for vehicle accidents, you ll need to keep two sets of records for injuries and illnesses one set of records to meet the requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and one set that is for your eyes only and goes above and beyond the OSHA requirements. 

Develop a recordkeeping system to record and track all injuries and illnesses in the workplace. Keep one set of records for OSHA compliance — using Forms 300, 300A, and 301 — and one set that is for your eyes only, containing more detailed information about all incidents. 

As part of that effort, OSHA requires your employees and their representatives to be involved in the recordkeeping system in several ways. Not only must you provide hmited access to your injury and illness records for your employees and their representatives, you must also inform each employee of how he/she is to report a work-related injury or illness to you. Do your employees know what to do if they get injured or become ill What if they see a co-worker who has become injured or ill on the job ... 

Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordkeeping, as well as of best practices in injury management. Combining these issues into an injury management system will create an environment where employees can be returned to work as soon as possible following an injury while also controlling the costs associated with an injury. 

On January 1, 2002, OSHA s new recordkeeping rule became effective. The completely revised rule is designed to improve the system that employers use to track and record workplace injuries and illnesses. It simplifies the recordkeeping system by combining previous regulatory requirements, guidelines, and interpretations into one document. 

OSHA requires that your employees and their representatives be involved in the recordkeeping system in the following ways ... 

If you wish to keep records in a different manner from that prescribed by the Part 1904 regulations, submit a variance petition to OSHA in Washington D.C. You may obtain a variance only if you can show that your alternative recordkeeping system ... 

Q. Does OSHA s no-fault recordkeeping system require recording work-related injuries and illnesses, regardless of the level of an employer s control or noncontrol ... 

This approach is consistent with the no-fault recordkeeping system OSHA has historically adopted, which includes work-related injuries and illnesses, regardless of the level of employer control or non-control involved. The concept of fault has never been a consideration in any recordkeeping system of the U.S. Department of Labor. Both the Note to Subpart A of the final rule and the new OSHA Form 300 expressly state that recording a case does not indicate fault, negligence, or compensability. 

Section 1904.7(b)(4)(i) provides that a work-related injury or illness must be recorded on the OSHA Log as restricted work activity if the employer assigns restricted work, or a physician or other licensed health care professional recommends restricted work. The preamble to the January 19, 2001, final rule revising OSHA s recordkeeping regulation states that employers must follow the recommendation of a physician or licensed health care professional. Under OSHA s recordkeeping system, an employee does not make the determination as to whether the physician s recommendation affects the employee s routine job functions and therefore is restricted work activity. ... 

OSHAsays in 1910.157(e)(3) that, The employer shall record the annual maintenance date and retain this record for one year after the last entry or the life of the shell, whichever is less. OSHA does not require that records of monthly fire extinguisher inspections be retained. However, as a best practice employers should establish an associated recordkeeping system to demonstrate compliance with the monthly inspection requirement. 

Firstly, the system is sustained by the thousands of the nation s employers who are required (by OSHA regulation) to maintain the OSHA-200 log and OSHA-101 (or equivalent form) supplemental data form. Despite OSHA s view that the records provide employers with a valuable resource for analyzing the work injury and illness experience of their work force, many employers view the system as an encumbrance or, worse, a required nuisance. This assessment of the system on the part of employers is unfortunate, but understandable. The reasons for this viewpoint by employers are many and are varied. It is sufficient in this context simply to understand that the system has been maintained over the past two decades by individuals who have little at stake in its success and who would care little if it completely failed. The fact that organized labor has, likewise, placed little importance on increasing the effectiveness of the OSHA/BLS recordkeeping system simply underscores this perspective. Hence, the roots of the present system provide little support other than what is mandatorily required by OSHA regulation. For this reason, only the required minimal effort is expended by employers to maintain the system s required records. Even that minimal effort often falls short in maintaining the detailed supplemental case form (OSHA-101 or equivalent). 

From this perspective, it may seem incongmous that these records could be of prime, practical significance to estimating the work injury and illness experience of the U.S. semiconductor industry, much less the nation s woik force. However, because the BLS recordkeeping system is considered credible by the federal and individual state governments, and because it is used both to target OSHA inspections and to determine the work injury and illness experience of employees in individual workplaces, it must be included in any employer s plan of injury and illness surveillance. 

This chapter discussed the importance of a safety management program addressing employee injuries and illnesses. The system must include OSHA-required recordkeeping, but should also include processes and procedures that serve to prevent injuries and illnesses before they happen. 

It replaces the American National Standard for Uniform Record Keeping for Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, ANSI Z16.4-1977, and USA Standard Method of Recordkeeping and Measuring Work Injury Experience, ANSI Z16.1-1967. This standard is a development of the old Z16.1, which had been in use since 1937, before it was replaced by the (for injury and iUness statistical research) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) system. The standard is useful in determining what kinds of events to evaluate. It includes statistical tools, including control charts, for data analysis. 

Although there are many kinds of incident and injury recordkeeping requirements and forms, the most commonly known system is that of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It provides a detailed example of incident record keeping. Details of the OSHA record-keeping requirements appear in 29 CFR 1904. They may change from time to time. 

Under the recordkeeping requirements established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and adopted by virtually all of the state plans, the work-related injury or illness is required to be recorded on the OSHA provided forms. However, safety and health professionals should be aware that the criteria through which a work-related injury or illness becomes recordable is substantially narrower than that of a workers compensation claim. A work-related workers compensation claim in which monies are spent by the employer may not meet the criteria to become an OSHA recordable case. Thus, given the different criteria between workers compensation and OSHA, the same injury or illness could potentially be a difference, depending on which system is being evaluated. 

Although there is no legal requirement for schools to maintain injury and illness recordkeeping beyond these few items as stated in the regulation, having an understanding of what OSHA requires for a comprehensive reporting system can assist... 

---