The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced a final rule updating its reporting and recordkeeping requirements.  As of January 1, 2015, employers located in states under federal OSHA jurisdiction must notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within 8 hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours.  Employers must only report fatalities occurring within 30 days of the work-related incident, and hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye that occur within 24 hours of the work-related incident.  This rule updates the previous requirement that employers only report work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees.

The new rule also updates the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to keep OSA injury and illness records using the OSHA 300 log.  Existing regulations provide that two classes of employers are partially exempt from keeping injury and illness record.  The first exemption applies to employers with ten or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year.  The second exemption applies to employers in identified low-hazard industries.  Beginning on January 1, 2015, a new list of industries will be added to the low-hazard industries that are exempted from this OSHA recordkeeping requirement.  The new list of exempt industries will be classified under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), as opposed to the old Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system.  Click here for more information on how to determine if your company is required to maintain records under the updated rule.