Labor & Employment Developments Blog

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued a final rule on September 11, 2014, requiring employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.  The rule also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements.

The revised rule requires employers to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours. Under the prior regulations, employers had to only report work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Now employers must report single hospitalizations and amputations.

All employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act are required to comply with OSHA's new severe injury and illness reporting requirements.  Employers who are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records also are covered under the new reporting requirements.  Employers can use OSHA’s web-based portal to report incidents electronically or they can call to report injuries.   

Additionally, OSHA has updated the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to keep injury and illness records. OSHA based the old list on the old Standard Industrial Classification system, and the new rule uses the North American Industry Classification System to classify establishments by industry. OSHA states that the new list is based on updated injury and illness data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employers with 10 or fewer employees, regardless of their industry classification, are still exempt from the requirement to routinely keep records of worker injuries and illnesses.

More regulation changes are expected from OSHA in the next year, and we will keep you updated as new rules are proposed.  If you have any questions about the new regulations or other OSHA-related questions please contact us.