OSHA has proposed new guidelines that would require certain employers to digitally publish injury and illness reports to OSHA on a regular basis. Specifically, the proposed changes would: 1) Require companies with over 250 employees to publish quarterly reports from Injury forms 300 and 300A; 2) Require high-risk industry employers with over 20 employees to publish annual reports from form 300A; 3) Allow OSHA to require any employer to publish specified injury reports. The goal is to improve workplace safety by collecting more establishment-specific injury data that companies, workers, and researchers can use to identify and reduce risks.

1. OSHA Proposed Rulemaking for Workplace Safety – Comments open till March 8
OSHA released suggested guidelines that would require certainemployers to digitally publish injury and
sickness reports to OSHA on a regular basis. Motivated by Chief executive The president’s Open Govt
Effort, OSHA suggests to make these details available to the public via online posts.
The Current Standards of Reporting
Under the current standard, three groups of companies are needed to keep OSHA injury and sickness
information. The first classification contains companies under OSHA authority with 11 or more workers,
unless the organization is categorized in a partly exempt industry. The second type of companies needed
to keep injury and sickness information holds companies with 10 or less workers, but only if OSHA or the
Institution of Work Research (BLS) shows them in writing that they must maintain such information. The
third set of businesses needed to protect information consists of those in partly exempt sectors if OSHA
or BLS informs them in writing that they must keep such information.
The injury and sickness details companies are needed to keep consist of the OSHA Type 300 (Log of
Work-Related Accidents and Illnesses) and the Type 300A (Summary of Work-Related Accidents and
Illnesses). Currently, OSHA does not generally obtain these details unless the organization is examined
by an OSHA official, or OSHA and/or the BLS demand the details from the company. These record
keeping guidelines are provided in 29 C.F.R. 1904.
Proposed Changes by OSHA ForRecord keeping
OSHA is suggesting three primary changes to its record keeping rules. First, businesses that are already
needed to keep injury and sickness records and that had 250 or more workers in the past twelve months
would need to digitally publish details from Types 300 and 300A Forms to OSHA every quarter.
Second, employers that are currently needed to keep injury and sickness records, that had 20 or more
workers in the past twelve months, and that are in certain "designated industries" would need to
digitally publish details yearly to OSHA from their Form 300A Yearly summary. There are over 50 specific
sectors (listed by NAICS code) that OSHA suggests to consist of in this need, such as the utilities,
construction, manufacturing, freight trucking, waste collection, home health care, and traveler
accommodation industries, among others
Third, OSHA requires all employers who receives notice from OSHA to digitally publish specified details
from Types 300 and 300A Forms to OSHA or OSHA's designee as required.

2. OSHA’s Jurisprudence
OSHA states that the main objective of the suggested rulemaking is to enhance workplace safety
through the collection and use of appropriate, establishment-specific injury and sickness data. OSHA
considers that by collecting such details, companies, workers, worker associates, the government, and
researchers would be better able to identify and remove risks. OSHA also preserves that online
publishing of the injury and sickness details would encourage companies to enhance and/or maintain
workplace safety to support their standing as great places to work.