OSHA Program Will Identify Employers Who Fail to Submit Injury and Illness Data

If your company hasn’t met the deadline to submit employee injuries and illnesses to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), it could face repercussions as soon as later this month. OSHA is initiating an enforcement program that identifies employers who failed to submit Form 300A data through the agency’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA).

All establishments with 250 or more employees—and those with 20 to 249 employees in industries with historically high rates of occupational injuries and illnesses, including building services—must keep OSHA injury and illness records. The establishments must report these injuries to OSHA annually.

The new enforcement program matches newly opened inspections against a list of potential non-responders to OSHA’s Form 300A through the ITA, then reports all matches to the appropriate OSHA area office. If the area office determines that the establishment on the list is the same establishment where the inspection was opened, OSHA will issue citations for failure to submit OSHA Form 300A Summary data.

“OSHA believes that it is vital for the public to have access to illness and injury information that employers provide in their annual submissions,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker. “We are committed to enforcing this important requirement and will continue to look for strategies to reach full compliance.”

Company injury and illness data allows workers, potential employees, and others to better understand workplace safety and health outcomes for a specific employer or industry. In addition, employers can use this data to benchmark with others in their industry or compare results across their operations.