New OSHA reporting requirements took effect January 1, 2015

On January 1, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updated its injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting requirements to include new requirements on what must be reported. It also added new industries to the list of who will be required to keep OSHA 300 logs, and exempted others previously covered. Veterinary practices with 11 or more employees are required to comply with OSHA and its new reporting requirements.

The revised rule retains the current requirement to report work-related fatalities and inpatient hospitalizations within eight hours of learning about them. It adds the requirement to report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24 hours of learning about it. Additionally, the threshold in the number of incidents that must be reported has changed from three or more to every work-related incident. 

This new requirement could lead to more incident inspections by OSHA, Marc Freedman, executive director of Labor Law Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Society for Human Resource Management. OSHA also plans to publish the reports of injuries on its public website.

Changes go into effect in January for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction. Veterinary practices located in states that operate their own safety and health programs should check with their state plan for the implementation date of the new requirements.

 

NEWStat Legislation & regulation