Recordkeeping &

Reporting: How the

Revised Standard
Affects Industry

Presented by: Angela K. Fineis (ATC

Associates Inc.)
History of the Regulations

 In place since 1971

Proposed changes announced in February
1996 (“The Revision of the Injury & Illness
Recordkeeping System”)
Revision announced on January 18, 2001
Final rule published in Federal Register on
January 19, 2001
Final rule effective January 1, 2002
What are the regulatory
requirements?
 OSHA regulations address:
 Occupational injury and illness
recording
 Occupational injury and illness
reporting
Applicable regulations:
 29 CFR 1904
 29 CFR 1952
What is the purpose of the
regulations?
 Provide employers with a
tool for tracking and
recording workplace illnesses
and injuries
Aid employers with
recognizing workplace
hazards and correcting
hazardous conditions
Allow OSHA to track trends in
safety
What prompted revisions to the
regulations?
 Industry complaints
 Former recordkeeping
requirements were complicated
 Former recordkeeping forms
were cumbersome
Confusing regulations
 Former regulations included only
requirements
 Interpretations were found in
many forms
What prompted revisions to the
regulations? (continued)
 Former regulations did not
include provisions for
needlestick and sharps injuries
Former regulations included
complicated criteria for
reporting musculoskeletal
disorders (MSDs)
OSHA attempting to revise,
update, and simplify all
regulations
Who is subject to the
regulations?
 All employers subject to the OSH Act
Exempt from most requirements:
Industries classified as low-hazard
sectors
 e.g., Retail, service, finance, insurance, and
real estate
 List revised to reflect recent industry
illness/injury data.
Excluded from full reporting
requirements:
 Religious establishments
 Household employees performing ordinary
domestic tasks
 Certain volunteers
Who is subject to the
regulations? (continued)
 Excluded from full reporting
requirements: (continued)
 Industries classified under SIC codes 52-809,
except codes 52-54, 70, 75, 76, 79, and 80
 Small businesses (10 or less employees)
 Sheltered workshops and job training
programs (unless personnel are
compensated)
 Stockholders (unless employed by the
corporation in which they hold stock)
 Self-employed persons
Primary Improvements to the
Standard
 Better definition of work-related injuries
Clarified definition of restricted work
Provisions for improved employee awareness
and involvement
 Provides workers or their representatives access to
the information on recordkeeping forms
 Increases awareness of potential hazards in the
workplace
Provisions for employee privacy
Primary Improvements to the
Standard (continued)
 “Plain English” wording
Question and answer format
Inclusion of checklists and
flowcharts
Inclusion of interpretations as
well as requirements
Simpler forms
Flexibility for using computers
to meet requirements
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule
 Updated recordkeeping
forms
 OSHA Form 300: Log of Work-
related Injuries and Illnesses
 Replaces Form 200: Log and
Summary of Occupational Injuries
& Illnesses
 Simplified reporting requirements
 Printed on smaller legal sized
paper
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Updated recordkeeping forms
(continued)
 OSHA Form 301: Injury and Illness
Incident Report
 Replaces Form 101: Supplementary
Record of Occupational Injuries &
Illnesses
 Includes more data about how injury or
illness occurred
 OSHA Form 300A: Summary of
Work-related Injuries and Illnesses
(easier calculation of incident
rates)
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
Eliminates different criteria for
recording work-related injuries
and work-related illnesses
 New rule uses one set of criteria for
injuries and illnesses.
 Former rule required employers to
record all illnesses, regardless of
severity.
 New rule accounts for severity of
illness.
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Requires records to include any work-
related injury or illness resulting in:
 Death
 Days away from work
 Restricted work or transfer to another job
 Medical treatment beyond first aid
 Loss of Consciousness
 Diagnosis of a significant injury/illness by
licensed health care professional
Note: Exposures in and of themselves are not
recordable.
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Includes new definitions to
simplify recording decisions
 Medical treatment
 First aid
 Restricted work
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
Requires a significant degree
of work-related aggravation
before a pre-existing injury
or illness becomes
recordable
Includes separate provisions
describing recording criteria
for cases involving work-
related transmission of
tuberculosis
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Add additional exemptions to the
definition of work-relationship
 Limits recording of cases involving
eating/drinking food beverages
 Limits recording of common colds and flu
 Limits recording of blood donations
 Limits recording of exercise programs
 Limits recording of mental illness
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
Clarifies recording of “light
duty” or “restricted work”
cases
 Requires employers to record
cases when injured/ill employee
is restricted from normal duties
 Defines normal duties: duties
the employee performs at least
once weekly
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Conforms with new ergonomics standard
 Requires employees to record all needlestick and
sharps injuries involving contamination by another
person’s blood or body fluids
 Applies same recording criteria to MSDs as to all
other injuries and illnesses
 Revised recordkeeping forms have separate
column for recording MSDs
 Employers retain flexibility to determine whether
an event or exposure in work environment caused
or contributed to MSD
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Requires employers to record
standard threshold shifts (STS) in
employees’ hearing
 Defines STS: an adverse change in an
employee’s hearing threshold, relative to
his/her most recent audiogram
 Requires recording hearing loss cases at
10 dB shift, rather than 25 dB shift
 Provides a separate column on Form 300
to capture statistics on hearing loss
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
Changes regarding
lost/restricted work
 Change in terminology
 Eliminates “lost workdays”
 Focuses on “days away” or “days
restricted or transferred”
 Includes new regulations for
counting days
 Rely on calendar days instead
of workdays
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Changes to employer requirements
 Employers must establish procedure
for employees to report injuries and
illnesses
 Employers must tell employees how to
report
 Employers are prohibited from
discriminating against employees who
report
 With change of ownership, seller must
turn over OSHA records to buyer
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Changes to employee rights
 Privacy rights
 Prohibits employers from entering
an individual employee’s name on
Form 300 for certain types of
injuries/illnesses
 Sexual assaults
HIV infections
Mental illness
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Changes to employee rights
(continued)
 Privacy rights
 Provides employers the right not to
describe the nature of sensitive injuries
where the employee’s identity would
be known
 Gives employee access to portions of
Form 301 relevant to the employee
they represent
 Requires employers to remove
employees’ names before providing
data to persons not provided access
under the rule
Summary of Key Provisions to New
Recordkeeping Rule (continued)
 Requires the annual summary to be
posted for three months (Feb. 1 to April
30) instead of one
Requires certification of annual summary
by a company executive
Changes reporting of fatalities and
catastrophes to exclude some motor
carrier and motor vehicle incidents
Allows all forms to be kept on computer
equipment or at alternate location
General Impact of Changes

 Final rule anticipated to

impact approximately 1.3
million establishments
 Some changes will increase
number of recordable cases;
some will decrease number
 OSHA anticipates roughly same
number of reported
injuries/illnesses
Newly exempt industries will
experience reduced costs
General Impact of
Changes (continued)
Newly covered industries will
experience additional costs
and benefits
 Must learn new requirements
 Must revise computer systems
used for recordkeeping
Areas of Potential Cost Savings

 Form 300: Less time to complete

simpler forms
Exemptions from the
requirement to consider certain
cases work-related (will result in
less cases being recorded)
Elimination of different recording
criteria for injuries and illnesses
(will result in less cases being
recorded)
Areas of Potential
Cost Savings (continued)
 Changes to the requirements for recording
illnesses and injuries with days away or
job restriction/job transfer (will result in
less cases being recorded)
Changes to the criteria for recording cases
of tuberculosis (will result in less cases
being recorded)
Changes to the criteria for recording
fatality/catastrophe incidents (will result
in less cases being recorded)
Areas of Potential
Cost Savings (continued)
 Elimination of separate
recording criteria for MSDs
(will result in less cases
being recorded)
Improvement in determining
recordability of illness/injury
Allowance of computerized
and centralized records
Areas of Potential Cost Increases

 Form 300A
 Requires increased employer review of
data and additional data on the
average employment/hours worked at
establishment
 Changes result in higher quality data,
but more time and cost to employer
Changes to the definitions of
medical treatment and first aid
(will result in more cases being
recorded)
Areas of Potential
Cost Increases (continued)
 Change to the criteria for recording
cases of hearing loss (will result in more
cases being recorded)
Change to the criteria for recording
needlestick and sharps injury (will
result in more cases being recorded)
Increased employee involvement
Employee privacy protections
Benefits of the Revised
Regulations
 More accurate data regarding
occupational illnesses and injuries
Simplified overall recordkeeping systems
for employers
Better protection for employees’ privacy

“The revision… will not lessen an employer’s

recordkeeping responsibilities, but it will make it
easier to successfully meet the requirements.” —
Sec. of Labor, Alexis Herman
Resources for Additional
Information
 Web site: www.osha.gov
 OSHA Region IV (Alabama, Florida,
Georgia, Mississippi): 404-562-2300
 29 CFR 1904: Occupational Injury and
Illness Recording and Reporting
Requirements
 “The Blue Book”: Recordkeeping
Guidelines for Occupational Injuries
and Illnesses
 Available from OSHA
 Last updated in 1991