A U.S. Department of Labor final rule released in July will require certain establishments in designated high-hazard industries—including aging services—to electronically submit additional injury and illness information to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), effective January 1, 2024.  Below is a detailed summary of the rule.

Background

Existing OSHA regulations require establishments to keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses at their establishments. Establishments use three forms to document recordable employee injuries and illnesses:

• OSHA Form 300, the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. This form includes information about the employee’s name, job title, date of the injury or illness, where the injury or illness occurred, description of the injury or illness (e.g., body part affected), and the outcome of the injury or illness (e.g., death, days away from work, job transfer or restriction).
• OSHA Form 301, the Injury and Illness Incident Report. This form includes the employee’s name and address, date of birth, date hired, and gender and the name and address of the health care professional that treated the employee, as well as more detailed information about where and how the injury or illness occurred.
• OSHA Form 300A, the Annual Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. This form includes general information about an establishment’s workplace, such as the average number of employees and total number of hours worked by all employees during the calendar year. It does not contain information about individual employees. Establishments are required to prepare this form at the end of each year and post the form in a visible location in the workplace from February 1 to April 30 of the year following the year covered by the form.

As explained further below, the effect of this new rule is to expand the scope of information from these forms that certain establishments must electronically submit to OSHA.

What information do establishments currently submit to OSHA and how does the rule expand the existing requirement?

Current OSHA recordkeeping regulations require two groups of establishments to electronically submit to OSHA information from the Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) once a year: (1) All establishments with 250 or more employees in industries that are required to routinely keep OSHA injury and illness records; and (2) establishments with 20-249 employees in certain designated, high-hazard industries.  The requirements for submission of data from Form 300A are not changing.

What’s new is that establishments with 100 or more employees in certain designated high-hazard industries will also be required to electronically submit information to OSHA once a year from their Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report).

What establishments are covered by the new requirement?

An establishment is required to submit data from its Forms 300 and 301 if: (1) the establishment had 100 or more employees at any time during the previous calendar year, and (2) the establishment is classified in an industry listed in Appendix B to Subpart E of Part 1904.

Appendix B is a list of industries OSHA has identified as having elevated injury and illness rates.  The agency designates these industries using the 2017 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.  It includes NAICS category 6231 [Nursing Care Facilities (Skilled Nursing Facilities)] and NAICS category 6233 [Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly].

Establishments that meet the submission requirements and are located in states with their own occupational safety and health programs (i.e., State Plans) are also required to submit data under this rule.

Establishments under Federal OSHA jurisdiction can use this Injury Tracking Coverage Application to determine if they are required to electronically report their injury and illness information to OSHA.  [Note: the application is designed to support determinations for submissions relating both to form 300A and form 300/301.] Establishments under State Plan jurisdiction should directly contact their State Plan.

The requirements apply to establishments covered by Federal OSHA, as well as establishments covered by states with their own occupational safety and health programs (i.e., State Plans).

Will the information submitted be publicly available?

Yes.  Despite concerns raised by employers during the rulemaking process, the final rule confirms that OSHA intends to make information, including company names, available to the public in a searchable online database. An agency announcement asserts that publication of this data will “allow establishments, employees, potential employees, employee representatives, current and potential customers, researchers and the general public to use information about a company’s workplace safety and health record to make informed decisions.”

According to its Fact Sheet, OSHA will make most of the data submitted under these new requirements available to the public. OSHA will take multiple steps to protect the identity of injured or ill workers, including:

• OSHA will not collect worker names and addresses;
• OSHA will convert birth dates to age and discard birth dates;
• OSHA will remind establishments not to submit information that could directly identify workers, such as names, addresses, telephone numbers, etc.;
• OSHA will withhold from publication the information on age, gender, date hired, and whether the worker was treated in an emergency room and/or hospitalized overnight as an in-patient;
• OSHA will use automated information technology to detect and remove any remaining information that could directly identify workers.

How does an establishment submit the information?

The data must be electronically submitted through OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA).  All the establishments required to submit information from their OSHA Form 300 Log and OSHA Form 301 Incident Report to OSHA under this rule are already required to electronically submit information from their Form 300A using the same system.

When does the rule take effect?

The submission requirement is annual, and the deadline for timely submission of the previous year’s injury and illness data will be on March 2 of each year.

The due date to submit information covering calendar year 2023 is March 2, 2024. The ITA will begin accepting 2023 injury and illness data on January 2, 2024.

Where can an organization find additional information?

OSHA has posted a summary and related information to this webpage, and there is a frequently-asked-questions resource specific to Forms 300 and 301.