OSHA Recordable vs. Reportable Incidents: How to Tell the Difference
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By the Better MRO Editors
If you have more than 10 employees or work in an industry with a higher-than-average potential for hazardous incidents—which covers nearly all metalworking and manufacturing facilities—then you’re subject to OSHA recording and reporting rules.
OSHA’s recordable versus reportable incidents: What’s the difference? What must a manufacturing plant share with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration?
Manufacturing floor chiefs and safety managers need to know the answer to both of these questions and be aware of the recordkeeping and reporting requirements necessary to stay in compliance with government regulations.
Every business should start with this baseline: If a worker suffers an injury or illness or dies while on the job, the company will likely need to record it. That’s the most basic definition of a recordable incident.
What Is an OSHA Reportable Incident?
OSHA is specific on what constitutes a reportable incident, as well as what information must be reported to the government and how quickly.
A fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye is considered a “serious” workplace incident that must be reported directly to OSHA—by phone or online—usually within hours.
A business must notify OSHA of any fatality within eight hours of the death.
It must notify OSHA of any inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours.
Inpatient hospitalization encompasses all formal admissions to the inpatient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment. “Hospitalization doesn’t necessarily mean that the employee stays overnight; if they’ve been admitted for inpatient treatment, the event must be reported,” notes safety compliance services firm KPA in a?blog post.
The reporting windows took effect when OSHA updated its recordkeeping standard,?29 CFR 1904, in 2015.
Is the Incident Work-Related?
“Hospitalizations and amputations are sentinel events, indicating that serious hazards are likely to be present at a workplace and that an intervention is warranted to protect the other workers at the establishment,” former OSHA administrator?David Michaels said in fall?2014.
What Information Is Needed for an OSHA Reportable Incident?
To comply with OSHA’s recordkeeping standard, the following information must be submitted to OSHA in the required time frame for any reportable incident—a fatality, inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye:
How to Use OSHA Form 301, Form 300 and Form 300A
Reports and logs are key elements of the OSHA recordkeeping rules. A business must maintain on-site incident reports and logs of all recordable incidents for at least five years. While that information doesn’t have to be submitted to OSHA, managers must be able to provide it if requested or during on-site inspections.
Inspectors typically review logs when they visit a facility. OSHA also requires businesses to fill out and keep on-site?three types of forms?for documenting recordable incidents.
To improve the tracking of workplace injuries, OSHA requires businesses with 100 or more employees in designated high-risk industries—including many in metalworking and manufacturing—to electronically submit injury and illness information on Form 300 and Form 301 each year. The final rule took effect Jan. 1, 2024.
Failure to maintain the records can lead to a $16,550 fine per violation as of January 2025, or $165,514 per violation if OSHA determines it is willful or repeated.
What Are OSHA Recordable Events?
OSHA has explicitly outlined the kinds of incidents safety managers need to manage and document:
There are also special recording criteria for work-related cases involving needlesticks, sharps injuries, medical removal, hearing loss and tuberculosis.
It’s crucial to note that not every incident is recordable. Generally speaking, recordable incidents involve events or exposures in the work environment that either caused or contributed to the resulting condition during work hours. If not, the case is not recordable.
If you’re ever in doubt about whether you must log an incident, OSHA recommends that you contact the agency and ask. That’s the easiest way to avoid a compliance issue.
What Is the Total Recordable Incident Rate?
Beyond the incident reports required after an injury, illness or fatality—and the ongoing log of them—OSHA inspectors (and many others) use recordable incident data to determine the total recordable incident rate (TRIR) for a facility.?
The TRIR is a percentage rate of recordable incidents per 100 employees. To?calculate your TRIR, you multiply the number of recordable incidents by 200,000, then divide by the total number of hours worked in a year by your employees.
OSHA uses the 200,000 number because it represents the hours 100 employees would work in a year, or 100 employees times 40 hours a week times 50 weeks a year.
To help figure out your TRIR, use our helpful,?interactive calculator for TCR (Total Case Rate) and DART (Days Away Restricted Transfer).
The lower the number, the better your safety record. And TRIR is important because it’s used in many different ways that can affect a business’s bottom line, according to a?Slice Products blog post.
OSHA uses the TRIR to monitor your business’s progress on improving its safety record; investors weigh it when evaluating your business for funding; insurers look at it when setting rates; buyers inquire about it when selecting suppliers; and would-be workers check it out when applying for jobs and evaluating safety culture.
Given how much rides on this number, it’s worth paying close attention to it. Not keeping your TRIR low can cost you money, damage your reputation, hurt your ability to hire and keep high-quality workers, and lead to lost time dealing with annoying paperwork.
Looking for more safety information? Check out the MSC Knowledge Center.