The Basics of OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements

If you are an employer managing over 10 employees, you need to keep track of serious work-related illnesses or injuries that take place. Only few of the low-risk industries are exempted from this. Apart from minor injuries that only require first aid, you should keep track of all other injuries.

OSHA will use the information you record like this to evaluate the overall safety of your workplace. Moreover, OSHA will use such information to determine industry-specific hazards and come up with appropriate measures to eliminate such hazards from taking place.

How to maintain and post OSHA injury records?

You need to record and maintain all these details in your worksite up to a period of five years. Moreover, you need to publish a summary of the injuries recorded for the previous year, in between every February and April. You should provide copies of these records to the current as well as former employees.

Reporting severe injuries

If there are any severe injuries or fatalities that take place in the workplace, you should report them within 8 hours. If there is a loss of an eye, amputation, or hospitalization of a worker, you should report it within 24 hours.