Meat + Poultry - September 2010 - 113

Labor
BY RICHARD ALANIZ
meatpoultry@sosland.com

Maintaining accuracy
Now more than ever, it's important to
dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" when it
comes to reporting workplace injuries
and illnesses. Under the National Emphasis Program (NEP), which began
last October, inspectors are targeting

* Form 300A, the "Summary of
Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses," must be completed at the
beginning of every year and displayed from early February to the
end of April.

OSHA puts injury and illness documentation
under its microscope
companies in certain industries to review records, interview employees and
conduct limited inspections. Facing
criticism that it has failed to accurately
track the rates at which U.S. workers
get hurt or sick on the job, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor, is
treating the NEP as a pilot program
to see if it can effectively target establishments to identify under-recording.

Reporting injuries, illnesses
Under OSHA requirements, employers
need to complete three different forms
that relate to injuries and illnesses over
the course of a year. Two of these must
be filled out promptly after a work-related accident or illness, and one must
be completed on an annual basis.
* Form 300 is a log of work-related
injuries and illnesses that must be
kept at every site.

* Form 301, known as the "Injury
and Illness Report," must be completed within seven days of a workrelated incident.

The 'new' NEP
The new program is limited to certain companies in certain industries.
According to OSHA, the under-recording of injuries and illnesses are
most likely to occur at establishments
with low rates of recorded injuries
that operate in historically high-rate
industries, including animal slaughtering, poultry processing and support activities for animal production.
The program is limited to those
with 40 or more employees who have
a certain Days Away, Restricted or
Transferred Rate (DART). Companies that meet all these defi nitions
should expect to be inspected.
During the inspections, OSHA of-

92 * Meat&Poultry * September 2010 * www.MeatPoultry.com

ficers will review several things. Officers will calculate the DART rate
for 2007 and compare it against rates
the employer has previously reported.
If the rate is low enough, the officers
will end the inspection immediately.
If the inspection does continue,
OSHA officials will review the employer's 2007 employee roster and
then pick several employee records
to review. Officials will also review
medical records, workers' compensation records, insurance records,
payroll/absentee records and, if available, company safety-incident reports,
company first-aid logs, alternate-duty
rosters and disciplinary records that
relate to injuries and illnesses.
OSHA officials will also talk to the
company's designated record keeper,
employees who are likely to be injured
or get sick, and managers and healthcare professionals will also be part of
the inspection. They will also reconstruct log entries for employees and
then compare them to the employer's
logs, and perform a limited review of
the main plant areas to see if there are
any obvious violations.
When they find violations, OSHA
officials will follow standard procedures for issuing citations. If the
inspectors fi nd that employers have
been trying to improperly influence
employees, a citation that may qualify as "other-than-serious" would be
changed to "serious" and a citation
that would otherwise be "serious"
would be considered "willful."
Meat companies should begin
working with their record keepers,
managers and supervisors, human
resources, and in-house and outside
counsel to ensure they will be able to
pass an inspection if one takes place. ■
Richard Alaniz is senior partner at Alaniz and
Schraeder, a national labor and employment firm
based in Houston.
We would like to hear from you - to comment
on this story or to request reprints, contact us
by e-mail at meatpoultry@sosland.com.

http://www.MeatPoultry.com

Meat + Poultry - September 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat + Poultry - September 2010