ILMA Compoundings November 2017 - 35

WASHINGTON LANDSCAPE

OSHA's Electronic
Reporting Deadline Fast
Approaching
By Daniel Bryant

he deadline for employers
to submit their injury and
illness data electronically to
the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) is Dec. 1,
2017, under its "Improve Tracking of
Workplace Injuries and Illnesses"
final rule.
OSHA postponed the original compliance deadline from July 1 to Dec. 1
to allow the Trump administration
time to review the requirements of the
regulation, and to give the industry
additional time to understand the
rule's mandates and how to report.
In the same Federal Register notice
delaying the compliance deadline,
OSHA stated that it would issue a
separate notice to solicit comments on
other substantive aspects of the rule.1
However, as this article goes to print,
OSHA has not published that notice.
Overall, the regulation requires electronic submission of injury and illness
data that will subsequently be placed
on OSHA's website for public review.2
Currently, covered employers are
required to record each reportable injury and illness on OSHA Form 300,
the "Log of Work-Related Injuries and
Illnesses," and must prepare an incident report on Form 301, the "Injury
and Illness Incident Report." Finally,
employers must prepare Form 300A,
"Summary of Work-Related Injuries
and Illnesses," and post it within the
facility from Feb. 1 through April 30
each year.
OSHA traditionally accesses those
forms if an on-site inspection of a

facility occurs. OSHA's data from 2014
indicates that approximately 1 percent
of facilities (83,000) were inspected out
of almost 8 million workplaces that are
subject to OSHA's jurisdiction.
Under the new rule, OSHA is now
requiring every workplace with 250
or more employees in industries covered by the record-keeping regulation
to submit information electronically
from their 2016 Form 300A by
Dec. 1. Additional requirements for
large employers commence in 2018.
Establishments with 20-249 employees in specified "high-risk industries" - identified by OSHA on a specific list and including all employers in
manufacturing industries - must also
submit their Form 300A electronically
by Dec. 1.
To help employers in complying
with the regulation, OSHA launched
its Injury Tracking Application (ITA)
in August. ITA is a web-based portal,
and it will accept three forms of data
submission from employers - information entered manually into the
ITA's online form, an uploaded CSV
file or data transferred electronically
using an application programming
interface (API). Importantly, the
required data submission does not
require the use of specific software.
According to OSHA, there are four
steps to the data submission process:
(1) Creating an establishment; (2)
adding 300A summary data; (3)
submitting data to OSHA; and (4)
reviewing the confirmation email. If
there is an issue with the submission,

the submitting company will receive
an email identifying the issues that
must be fixed before the submission
will be accepted.
OSHA estimates that it will take
employers a total of 20 minutes to
submit the required information -
10 minutes to create an account and
10 minutes to submit the information.
ILMA members that have not yet
reported should review the specific
requirements of the regulation and
report before the Dec. 1 deadline.
However, OSHA did state that it
would issue another proposed rule
seeking comments on the substance
of the regulation that would possibly
lead to its reconsideration, revision
or repeal.
That has not occurred as this article
goes to print, but ILMA members
should be aware that the requirements of
the rule might change before Dec. 1 and
should regularly review any updates at
www.osha.gov/injuryreporting.
1 Calif., Md., Minn., S.C., Utah, Wash. and Wyo.
have OSHA-approved "state plans" that have
not yet adopted the rule.
2 The rule also mandates that employers promote injury reporting, not implement incentive
or drug-testing programs that dissuade reporting or retaliate against a reporting employee;
however, those provisions are beyond the
scope of this article.

Bryant serves as regulatory
counsel to ILMA through
Bassman, Mitchell, Alfano &
Leiter Chtd. He may be reached
at 202-386-7670 or dbryant@bmalaw.net.

http://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting

ILMA Compoundings November 2017

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