Regulatory compliance remains among the highest priorities for facility managers in institutional and commercial facilities. One recent action by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) has addressed the steps organizations must take to ensure their facilities are compliant with federal safety issues.
OSHA has walked back reporting requirements tied to workplace injury and illness, prompting a lawsuit by several groups which had planned to use the information to advocate for stronger regulatory protections, according to an article in Safety+Health.
The rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, now no longer requires employers with 250 or more employees that had been required to maintain injury and illness records to submit OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, and OSHA Form 301, Injury and Illness Incident Report, which would have been submitted electronically. The injury and illness data on these forms is already stored onsite. These employers do still have to electronically submit OSHA Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.
In the original rulemaking, OSHA stated it planned to make injury information public to ‘“nudge’ employers to focus on safety.”
OSHA says the July 30, 2018, adjustment to the electronic reporting requirement was motivated by a desire to protect worker information under the Freedom of Information Act and that the burden of reporting was unfair given the potential benefit of collecting the information.
This Quick Read was submitted by Naomi Millán, senior editor, Building Operating Management.
