The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a Final Rule on January 24, 2019 that
effectively ends some of the electronic filing requirements that became effective January 1, 2017. Its
regulation that employers with 250 or more employees file specific information regarding employee
injuries and illnesses on Forms 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) 301 (Injury and Illness
Incident Report) will be discontinued effective March 1, 2019.
In its July 30, 2018 Notice of Proposed Rule Making, the agency stated that it has preliminarily
determined that the risk of disclosure of this information, the costs to OSHA of collecting and using the
information, and the reporting burden on employers are unjustified given the uncertain benefits of
collecting the information. OSHA believes that this proposal maintains safety and health protections for
workers while also reducing the burden to employers of complying with the current rule.
OSHA also noted that the personal information employers submitted on Forms 300 and 301 regarding
employee injuries is subject to the Freedom of Information Law (FOIL), implying that it could be obtained
by third parties with unknown intentions, leading to a potential compromise of worker privacy.
In its January 24th announcement, OHSA further states that this rule change will allow it to use severe
injury reports to “target areas of concern”, apparently meaning that by reducing the sheer volume of
information it now receives by eliminating Forms 300 and 301 will allow it to concentrate on inspecting
known trouble spots.
Employers must remember that the electronic filing of Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries
and Illnesses) requirement has not changed nor has the requirement that employers maintain Forms
300 and 301 on their premises for review by OSHA Compliance Officers if necessary.
OSHA is also amending the record keeping requirements to provide itself and the Department of Labor
(DOL) with more of what it calls “meaningful data” by requiring employers to include Employee
Identification Numbers (EIN) with their Form 300A information. According to this agency, it hopes this
modification will help reduce duplication of effort by employers, thereby saving them time and
associated costs.