OSHA Releases New Reporting Rule

This week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released its anticipated “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses” final rule, which will require businesses with 250 or more employees, per facility, to electronically report to the agency annually all of the company’s injury and illness logs for that year starting in 2017.

Companies with 20-249 employees, per facility, in “designated industries,” including manufacturing, will also have to report annually.

While the agency states it will not report any specific employee information, “OSHA intends to post the establishment-specific injury and illness data it collects under this final rule on its public Web site,” which means company’s records will be available for public consumption.

The National Association of Manufacturers issued this statement on the rule: “ … this administration put a target on nearly every company and manufacturer in the United States. Manufacturers are supportive of regulations aimed at increasing transparency, and we pride ourselves on creating safe workplaces for the men and women who make things in America. However, this regulation will lead to the unfair and unnecessary public shaming of these businesses. This is a misguided attempt at transparency that sacrifices employee and employer privacy, allows for distribution of proprietary information and creates burdens for all manufacturers. We will look at all options to protect manufacturers from this certain threat to the modern shop floor.”