The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) made changes to reporting and recordkeeping requirements that employers must follow starting in 2015.
New reporting rules require employers to contact their state OSHA agency within eight hours for a work-related fatality. Also under the rule employers must report, within 24 hours, a work-related accident that results in the hospitalization, amputation or the loss of an eye.
Employers have three options for reporting these severe incidents to OSHA; call the nearest office, call the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 1-800-321-OSHA or report online.
Previous OSHA rules required an employer to report only work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees and reporting single hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye was not required.
The new reporting rules requirement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2015 in most states. For employers in South Carolina the new rule will go into effect after it’s adopted by the state’s General Assembly and implemented by the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
OSHA has also announced new recordkeeping rules, effective Jan. 1, 2015, for the list of industries that are partially exempt from its requirement to keep records of occupational injuries and illnesses.
Some of the industries that will be covered by the recordkeeping rule starting with the new year include:
- Automobile dealers
- Automotive parts, accessories and tire stores
- Commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing
- Direct selling establishments
- Performing arts companies
- Museums, historical sites, and similar institutions
- Amusement and recreation industries
- Other personal services
More on OSHA’s record keeping rules can be found here.
