OSHA Workplace Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements

Recordkeeping Requirements

Most employers with an excess of 10 employees are mandated to maintain a written record of significant work-related illnesses or injuries. (There are specific exempted low-risk industries) Slight injuries incurred in the workplace needing just first aid are not mandated to be recorded.  

• How does OSHA define a recordable injury or illness?
• How does OSHA define first aid?

This recorded workplace accident and illness information assists OSHA, workers and employers in the evaluation of a workplace’s safety, comprehend the hazards of the industry, put enact worker protections to lower and remove workplace dangers which will in turn thwart workplace illnesses and injuries in the future.    

Record Maintenance and Display Requirements

Workplace injury and illness records are required to be maintained for 5 years at the worksite. Employers are required to display a report from Feb. through April showing the illnesses and injuries for the prior year that occurred at the worksite. Copies of the company’s worksite illness and accident records are to be given to current and former employees.

• Get recordkeeping forms 300, 300A, 301, and additional instructions.
• Read the full OSHA Recordkeeping regulation (29 CFR 1904).

Updated Electronic Submission of Records

The Injury Tracking Application (ITA) is accessible from the ITA launch page, where you can provide the Agency your OSHA Form 300A information. The date by which certain employers are required to submit to OSHA the information from their completed Form 300A is March 2nd of the year after the calendar year covered by the form.

Severe Injury Reporting

Employers are mandated by law to report all worker fatal accidents within a time frame of 8 hours of the loss and all hospitalizations, eye loss or amputation within the time frame of 24 hours of the occurrence.