The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. government’s enforcement agency for safety and health legislation covering the workplace, has issued new injury reporting rules that will take effect beginning on January 1, 2015.
The new reporting rules were released in September 2014, and are intended to improve worksite conditions and worker safety throughout the construction industry.
New OSHA injury reporting rules, which also include severe illness reporting, require employers to notify OSHA within 24 hours of incidents in which a worker experiences a work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye.
Employers must notify OSHA within eight hours if an incident results in a worker’s death on the job.
All employers covered under the rules of the Occupational Health and Safety Act are required to comply with the new reporting requirements. This includes employers in industries that are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records, such as retail business.
OSHA is expected to take steps to make reporting easier, such as creating an online reporting form and providing for making reports via phone.
Under the previous rules, employers were required to make a report to OSHA only when there was a fatality or when three or more employees were hospitalized from the effects of a single incident.
The construction industry still ranks highest in the number of fatal injuries, which has prompted OSHA’s stricter requirements for accident, injury and illness reporting.
OSHA has also increased the number and types of employers who are required to comply with the new reporting rules. New employers include building material and supplies dealers, commercial and industrial machinery equipment rental and leasing firms, companies providing facilities support services, and companies providing services to buildings and dwellings.
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