Is stepping on a rusty nail or falling off a ladder at a worksite considered a recordable injury? Is there a difference between a remote worker getting injured carrying a box of work documents or a basket of laundry?
Employers face many challenges but one of the biggest headaches is determining whether to record a workplace illness and injury on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Form 300, according to XpertHR’s new Top 10 Q&As and Checklist for OSHA Compliance guide.
OSHA record keeping rules require that serious work-related injuries, such as injuries requiring days away from work, restricted work, or a transfer to another job, or loss of consciousness, be recorded on the OSHA 300 log. Also, any injury requiring medical treatment beyond first aid must be recorded. In its new guide, XpertHR provides direction on major and minor workplace injuries and which should be recorded to comply with OSHA’s requirements.
“Each injury and illness is unique, and employers must consider certain factors when deciding whether it is considered ‘recordable’ according to OSHA and which are not,” said Melissa Gonzalez Boyce, Legal Editor, XpertHR. “Injuries can happen even in the safest workplaces and when they do, employers must be knowledgeable on which injuries they must report to OSHA or potentially face stiff penalties.”
In its guide to workplace injuries and illnesses, XpertHR identifies common scenarios and offers advice for evaluating them based on OSHA criteria. Some of the real-life scenarios in XpertHR’s guide include: an ergonomics injury, fainting at work, injury sustained on a business trip, and work-related injuries or illnesses of seasonal workers.
“There are often gray areas with injury and illness record keeping where it is not clear whether an injury meets the recording criteria,” said Gonzalez Boyce. “Employers need to understand the requirements for properly identifying recordable incidents in order to proactively achieve OSHA record keeping compliance.”
To learn more about OSHA’s injury and illness record keeping regulations and to find out how to respond to a workplace injury or illness, download the XpertHR Top 10 Q&As and Checklist for OSHA Compliance guide at XpertHR.
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