On January 25, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) published a final rule rescinding the requirements to electronically submit information from OSHA Forms 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report).

Under the previous rule, OSHA required establishments with 250 or more employees to electronically submit Forms 300, 301, and 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).  There was a possibility, however, that the submitted forms could be found disclosable under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”).  Forms 300 and 301 request sensitive information such as the employee’s date of birth and descriptions of the injuries and body parts affected.  Form 300A, on the other hand, merely summarizes the incident without connection to individual workers.  OSHA determined that avoiding the risk to workers’ privacy outweighed the data’s uncertain incremental benefits to enforcement.

As such, covered establishments still need to submit Form 300A, but are only required to maintain Forms 300 and 301 on-site.

The Final Rule also requires covered employers to submit their Employer Identification Number (“EIN”) electronically along with their injury and illness data submission, which OSHA says will facilitate use of the data and may help reduce duplicative employer reporting.

This Final Rule is effective February 25, 2019.