Issues that
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Employers will now be required to report all work-related fatalities within 8 hours and all in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or loss of an eye within 24 hours of finding out about the incident.
Previously, employers were only required to report all workplace fatalities or when three or more workers were hospitalized in the same incident.
These updated reporting requirements were enacted to enable employers and workers to prevent future injuries by identifying and eliminating the most serious workplace hazards.
The requirement to complete the OSHA 300 and 300a form have not changed. The 300 form logs a businesses work-related injuries during the year and the 300a is the summary that must be posted from February 1st to April 30th.
What have changed are the incidents that need to be reported directly to OSHA very promptly.
Beginning January 1, 2015, employers must report direct to OSHA the
following:
- All work-related fatalities within 8 hours
- All in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye within 24 hours of learning about it.
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To file the report, businesses can call their local OSHA Area Office or the 24-hour hotline at 1-800-321-6742. OSHA is also developing a method to report on-line that should be available shortly. The information they need will be the following:
- Establishment name
- Location and time of the work-related incident
- Type of reportable event (i.e. fatality, amputation, etc.)
- Number of employees who suffered the event
- Names of those employees
- Contact person and his or her phone number
- Brief description of the incident
Businesses are not required to report an event if it is the result of a motor vehicle accident on a public roadway (unless it occurred in a construction work zone) or if the hospitalizations due to a heart attack or if it is just for observation.
These changes are serious. Failure to follow these procedures could result in fines. It also re-enforces the reason why we need to be OSHA Compliant.
Certain areas of the country the state OSHA requirements are already ahead of the Federal OSHA requirements. For example, California was ahead of the curve and had most of the new Federal requirements already incorporated into the Cal OSHA regulations. For state specific requirements remember to look to a local OSHA consultant or go to the state website.
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