{"id":7311,"date":"2023-06-16T09:38:53","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T13:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oshadefensereport.com\/?p=7311"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:24:14","slug":"10-reasons-it-is-critical-to-get-osha-injury-and-illness-recordkeeping-and-reporting-right-and-how-to-ensure-you-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.connmaciel.com\/osha-defense-report\/10-reasons-it-is-critical-to-get-osha-injury-and-illness-recordkeeping-and-reporting-right-and-how-to-ensure-you-do\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Reasons Why It Is Critical For Employers To Get OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Right — And How to Ensure It is Done Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/em><\/strong>Eric J. Conn<\/em><\/strong><\/a> and <\/em><\/strong>Lindsay A. DiSalvo<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Although OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting has always been important from an OSHA compliance perspective, making correct recording and reporting decisions (i.e., not over- or under- recording or reporting) has never been more vital than it is today. We are at a moment in OSHA\u2019s history when the agency is clearly staffing up and ramping up inspections and enforcement generally, and with respect to injury and illness recordkeeping specifically, OSHA is on the precipice of issuing a significant expansion of the injury and illness data required to be submitted to OSHA each year.\u00a0 Indeed, OSHA sent the final Electronic Recordkeeping Rule to OMB for final review, which is the last step in the rulemaking process before the rule is published.<\/p>\n

OSHA developed and repeatedly touted its injury and illness recordkeeping program as a \u201cno fault\u201d system, requiring certain injuries and illnesses to be recorded (or proactively reported to OSHA), regardless whether the employer or its safety program could have prevented the injury. In practice, however, recordkeeping data has become another tool OSHA uses to justify enforcement efforts and actions against specific employers or their industries. From publicizing recordkeeping data to \u201cshame\u201d employers, or using the data to target enforcement resources, OSHA has made it essential for employers not to over-record cases; i.e., they must carefully scrutinize each potential recordable injury or illness, rather than erring on the side of recording every close call. Of course, there are also real and growing enforcement risks for under-recording; i.e., failing to record or report cases that should have been recorded or reported.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, it is more important than ever before to make sure your organization fully understands the nuances of OSHA\u2019s recordkeeping and reporting requirements.<\/p>\n

Here is our take on the Top 10 reasons it is critical for employers to get OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting right (not recording or reporting more cases than necessary, and not failing to record or report cases that should be):<\/p>\n

\"10<\/a><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 OSHA\u2019s Electronic Recordkeeping, which puts previously internal data now in OSHA\u2019s hands and on its public website, is about to expanded significantly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result of OSHA\u2019s E-Recordkeeping rule, employers\u2019 injury and illness data is now published on OSHA’s public website.\u00a0 Unfortunately, because OSHA’s injury and illness recordkeeping program was designed to be a \u201cno-fault\u201d program (i.e., cases must be recorded even if the injury was entirely the fault of the employee or otherwise beyond the control of the employer), the raw data alone does not present a complete picture of how or why an injury or illness occurred, and more importantly, may not be a reflection at all of the employer\u2019s safety program.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, public access to this data can impact an employer\u2019s reputation and potentially deter potential customers or prospective employees. It also means that competitors have access to the data and can use it against the employer. Similarly, unions can use the data in collective bargaining negotiations or to promote organizing efforts, and plaintiff\u2019s attorneys could potentially rely on the data to target companies for lawsuits.<\/p>\n

And if that was not bad enough, OSHA is days away from issuing an amended E-Recordkeeping Rule that will greatly expand the number of employers who have to submit their data and the amount of data required to be shared with OSHA.\u00a0 This further underscores the importance of accurate recordkeeping. \u00a0OSHA recently submitted its final Electronic Recordkeeping Rule to the Office of Management and Budget (\u201cOMB\u201d)<\/a>, which has the final review before the Rule is promulgated and ultimately becomes effective for employers, so OSHA is one small step away from finalizing a rule that more closely mirrors the original broad scope of the regulation issued during the Obama Administration in 2016.<\/p>\n

As a reminder, OSHA\u2019s proposed changes to the E-Recordkeeping Rule seek not only to restore the requirement from the original 2016 rule to have larger employers submit the full array of recordkeeping data (i.e., data from their 300A Annual Summaries like they do now, plus data from their 300 Logs and detailed 301 incident reports), but also to expand the number of employers that must submit data by lowering the threshold number of employees from 250 to 100 and by expanding the list of covered high-hazard industries.\u00a0\u00a0Specifically, under the proposed amendments to the E-Recordkeeping Rule:<\/p>\n