The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will require employers to submit detailed annual reports workplace injuries and illness for publication online. The new reports will be due to be filed electronically in 2017. OSHA stated that it will cleanse the personal identification data before posting on the Internet. The companies that have more than 250 employees and business with a least 20 employees in certain high-risk industries will be covered under these new provisions. Before these requirements, the forms were usually filed away and were not seen by the government. The documents to be filed electronically and will now be public are the following:
- form 301 (Injury and Illness Report),
- Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses )
- Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illness)
Also included in the new regulations is a anti – retaliation provisions. Items such safety incentive programs or requirements of drug testing of each employee after an accident could be a problem. Incentives such as offering prizes for a certain number of days without a reportable accident will probably be viewed as “an active discouragement to reporting”. Requiring drug tests for job-related injuries also could be seen as pressure to report an accident. Companies need to ensure that reasonable procedures are in place to report injuries and illness and drug-testing policies are clear and practices are consistent around testing for cause.
