OSHA update: Electronic record keeping, regulatory agenda, combustible dust, noise in construction

OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application

Injury Reporting is now available allowing employers to electronically enter their required 2016 injury and illness data from Form 300A. The Improve Track of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule went into effect Jan. 1 with an initial compliance deadline of July 1. But OSHA has proposed delaying that deadline until Dec. 1, in an effort to allow employers to become familiar with the new web-based reporting platform, as well as provide time for the Trump administration to review the requirements before enacting them.

The requirements are to be phased in over two years. Establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the record keeping regulation must submit information from their 2016 Form 300A by December 1, 2017. These same employers will be required to submit information from all 2017 forms (300A, 300, and 301) by July 1, 2018. Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries must submit information from their 2016 Form 300A by December 1, 2017, and their 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018.

The agency’s data submission process has four steps including:

• creating an establishment
• adding 300A summary data
• submitting data to OSHA and
• reviewing the confirmation email

There are three options for data submission. The first enables users to manually enter data. The second allows employers to upload a CSV file to process single or multiple establishments at the same time. Lastly, an application programming interface will allow users to sync automated record keeping systems directly to the platform.

In addition, OSHA says it plans to issue a separate proposed rule to reconsider, revise, or remove other provisions of the Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule. The Agency will seek comment on those provisions in the separate proposal.

What should employers do now?

The future of the rule is uncertain and OSHA has proposed delaying the deadline for compliance until Dec. 1. Presently, the decision-making positions within the agency are thinly staffed. The assistant secretary (the head honcho) position is vacant. The chief of staff and senior advisor positions are vacant. One of two deputy assistant secretaries is vacant. While most pundits think the Trump administration will remove or significantly revise the provisions to publish the data online, it’s unknown what will be done with these historically private records once they are submitted electronically. For that reason a wait and see approach might be best, particularly for those with questionable performance.

Notable drops on regulatory agenda: combustible dust and noise in construction

The administration recently published its Unified Agenda, which reports on regulatory and deregulatory activities under development for the coming year. As expected the potential regulatory actions have been cut more than in half. The agenda lists 14 standards in either the pre-rule, proposed rule or final rule stages compared to the 30 listed on the Fall 2016 agenda by the Obama administration.

The combustible dust standard intended to prevent combustible dust explosions is the most notable drop as it was added to the agenda following a catastrophic sugar dust explosion in Georgia in 2008. Also, the noise in construction initiative has been dropped. OSHA has a hearing conservation standard for general industry workers, but nothing equivalent for construction workers. These initiatives have been classified as “completed actions” and for each initiative OSHA states, “OSHA is withdrawing this entry from the agenda at this time due to resource constraints and other priorities.”

Other pre-rule and proposed rule items moved off the main regulatory agenda and placed on a long-term actions list include prevention of workplace violence in healthcare and social assistance, emergency response and preparedness, infectious disease rule, and tree care standards.

Long-term actions are items under development, but for which the agency does not expect to have a regulatory action within the 12 months after publication of the current edition of the Unified Agenda.