Time to post OSHA-required annual injury summaries

It’s that time of year again.

OSHA requires covered employers (more about who is covered below) to post their OSHA Form 300A from Feb. 1 through April 30 each year.

Form 300A summarizes job-related injuries and illnesses during 2015.

Employers should post the form in a common area (break room, cafeteria) where notices to employees are usually found.

Employers with 10 or fewer employees and those in specific low-hazard industries are exempt from federal OSHA injury and illness recordkeeping, including the Form 300A requirement.

Changes to OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements went into effect Jan. 1, 2015, and some changes were made to the lists of industries that are exempt and those that are required to report.

Among the industries that are partially exempt (by NAICS code):

• 4431: Electronics and appliance stores
• 4471: Gasoline stations
• 4861, 4862, 4869: Pipeline transportation of crude oil, pipeline transportation of natural gas, and other pipeline transportation
• 4879: Scenic and sightseeing transportation, other
• 5112: Software publishers
• 5411: Legal services
• 5611: Office administrative services, and
• 6111: Elementary and secondary schools.

Click here for the entire list of exempt industries.

On the other hand, some industries were changed from exempt to having to report. Those include:

• 3118: Bakeries and tortilla manufacturing
• 4411: Automobile dealers
• 5311: Lessors of real estate
• 5612: Facilities support services
• 6241: Individual and family services
• 7111: Performing arts companies, and
• 7223: Special food services.

Click here for the entire list of industries that were changed from exempt to required to report in 2015.

No injuries in 2015? You still have to post Form 300A and fill it out to reflect that you didn’t have any injuries.

What’s required on the form? The total number of:

• deaths
• cases with days away from work
• cases with job transfer or restriction
• other recordable cases
• days away from work
• days of job transfer or restriction
• injuries
• skin disorders
• respiratory conditions
• poisonings
• hearing loss, and
• all other illnesses.

You’ll also have to record the annual average number of employees and the total hours worked by all employees last year. OSHA has a worksheet online if you need help calculating those numbers.

Fred Hosier. "Time to post OSHA-required annual injury summaries" Safety News Alert. January 28, 2016