All print facilities with more than 20 full time employees must submit electronically by July 1, 2018, their OSHA 300A form information for injuries and illnesses that occurred during 2017.
The employee threshold of 20 does not have to be based only on full time employees. This means that part time and temporary workers need to be included in the employee count to determine if the threshold is exceeded. For example, if a company had 18 employees and 3 part time employees, they would have a total of 21 employees under the injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting regulation.
In order to accept the data, OSHA created the Injury Tracking Application (ITA). The Web-based form allows employers to electronically submit required injury and illness data from their completed 2016 OSHA Form 300A. The application will be accessible from the ITA webpage. (https://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting/index.html)
The data submission process involves four steps:
1. Creating an establishment
2. Adding 300A summary data
3. Submitting data to OSHA
4. Reviewing the confirmation email
The secure website offers three options for data submission. One option will enable users to manually enter data into a web form. Another option will give users the ability to upload a CSV file to process single or multiple establishments at the same time. A third option will allow users of automated recordkeeping systems to transmit data electronically via an application programming interface (API.)
In order to demonstrate that you have met the new reporting requirement, you should keep copies of all of the electronic correspondence from OSHA.
When Federal OSHA issued the reporting rule in 2016, it required that all state plan states adopt substantially identical requirements to the final E-Recordkeeping Rule within six months. However, because the state plan states all have their own legislative or rulemaking processes and due to all of the delays issued last year by Federal OSHA, not all states have adopted the rule. As of today, California, Maryland, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming have not yet adopted the regulation.
In order to ensure that all covered employers in all states are reporting their data, Federal OSHA issued a “clarification statement” on April 30, 2018 addressing this situation. Federal OSHA stated that all covered employers to submit their data by July 1, 2018 even if their state has not yet adopted the rule.
The April 30 statement has cause some controversy in that Maryland, Utah, Washington and Wyoming OSHA’s pushed back by issuing their own statements stating that covered employers are not legally mandated to submit reports. California OSHA also issued a statement that acknowledged that while companies were not legally required to report, they were advising companies that were required to report to go ahead and comply.
There are differing legal opinions regarding the ability for Federal OSHA to compel companies in California, Maryland, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming to report. In order to avoid any potential problems, companies in California, Maryland, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming should follow the statement by California OSHA and plan on submitting their data to OSHA. Eventually, these states will be adopting the regulation so that they can maintain their authority to run their program.
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