OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping Forms Explained and the Reasons OSHA Has Strict Recordkeeping Requirements
You should know the OSHA documentation requirements for your New Mexico business. Construction and manufacturing companies, among others, are subject to OSHA’s documentation requirements concerning worker safety.
The OSHA 300 log is the most well-known because it documents all worker injuries and illnesses.
It may seem like a hassle to keep up with the latest information and fill out the forms correctly but doing so is essential. Substantial penalties and damage to your compliance program’s integrity await you if you fail to submit the required documents on time and in full.
Inspectors from OSHA aren’t hesitant about handing them out, and that’s only for offenses related to paperwork, not to mention any violations related to actual job safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) find a wind turbine maker in Iowa $155,000 in 2018 for infractions, including inadequate recordkeeping.
How Do I Find the OSHA Forms for Tracking Illnesses and Accidents?
The OSHA 300, OSHA 300a, and OSHA 301 forms are required for compliance with OSHA recordkeeping standards.
All workplace injuries and illnesses must be reported on the OSHA Form 300. There are three main parts to this:
Localizing the source of pain or sickness (name, case number, job title)
The nature of the injury (severity, location, and date of injury)
Checking off the appropriate boxes to describe the nature of the injury (e.g., time off work, hospitalization) and its consequences
When documenting a sickness or injury on Form 300, it is also necessary to complete Form 301. Each incident is reported on its own Form 301, the Injury and Sickness Incident Report, which provides additional room for describing the circumstances surrounding the injury or illness.
The 301 form is where you can explain what happened, why, and how it affected the employee.
Form 300A is a log summary report and must be completed annually. When filling out Form 300A, you must first utilize Form 300 to determine:
- Exact death toll
- Cases resulting in a cumulative total of work absences
- Cumulative occurrences of incidents involving work-related restrictions or transfers
- Quantity of Other Reported Incidents
- Sum of all sick and vacation days
- Cumulative number of days of work restrictions or job transfers
- Sicknesses, wounds, cuts, poisonings, lost ears, and broken noses added up
This form is meant merely to keep a running count of the costs associated with accidents and sickness at your business. Specifically, no employee names or other identifying information are included.
What Variations in Requirements Has OSHA Implemented Lately?
The first major revision to OSHA’s recordkeeping procedures was the 2002 introduction of Forms 300, 300A, and 301. Needlestick/sharps injuries, musculoskeletal problems, TB transmission, and standard threshold shift (STS) hearing loss cases were added to the list of things that needed to be reported in 2002.
In 2015, OSHA revised its reporting and documenting mandates for the workplace.
Calling OSHA’s (800) 321-67420 hotline or your local area office to report work-related fatalities, hospitalizations, or eye losses is mandatory as of 2015.