The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has expanded its requirement for reporting fatalities and severe injuries, and updated the list of industries exempt from recordkeeping requirements.  The final rule announced September 11, 2014 requires all employers to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. The rule, which also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements, will go into effect on January 1, 2015 for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.

What Incidents Must be Reported to OSHA?

Under the revised rule, employers will be required to notify OSHA of:

• work-related fatalities within eight hours of knowledge;
• work-related in-patient hospitalizations within 24 hours of knowledge;
• amputations within 24 hours of knowledge; and
• losses of an eye within 24 hours of knowledge.

Previously, OSHA’s regulations required an employer to report only work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Reporting single hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye was not required under the previous rule.

All employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, even those who are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records as described below, are required to comply with OSHA’s new severe injury and illness reporting requirements.

How to Report Incidents to OSHA

Employers can report these events by telephone to the nearest OSHA Area Office during normal business hours or the 24-hour OSHA hotline 1-800-321-OSHA [6742], or electronically through a new tool which will be released soon and accessible at the link below.

• OSHA Area Offices in Texas
• OSHA Online Reporting Tool

Updated List of Industries Exempt from OSHA Recordkeeping Requirements

The new rule maintains the exemption for any employer with 10 or fewer employees, regardless of their industry classification, from the requirement to routinely keep records of employee injuries and illnesses.

In the new rule, OSHA has updated the list of industries that, due to relatively low occupational injury and illness rates, are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. The rule will go into effect January 1, 2015 for workplaces under federal OSHA jurisdiction.

• Revised List of Exempt Industries
• List of Newly Covered Industries

The previous list of exempt industries was based on the old Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system and the new rule uses the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) to classify establishments by industry. The new list is based on updated injury and illness data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

For more information on the industries now exempt from keeping records or new industries now covered, please visit OSHA’s website.

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