More U.S. Workplace Injury and Illness Data Becoming Publicly Accessible

From U.S. Dept. of Labor
From the U.S. Dept. of Labor:

Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a final rule to modernize injury data collection to better inform workers, employers, the public and OSHA about workplace hazards.
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OSHA requires many employers to keep a record of injuries and illnesses to help these employers and their employees identify hazards, fix problems and prevent additional injuries and illnesses. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports more than three million workers suffer a workplace injury or illness every year.
[Our emphasis] Currently, little or no information about worker injuries and illnesses at individual employers is made public or available to OSHA.
Under the new rule, employers in high-hazard industries will send OSHA injury and illness data that the employers are already required to collect, for posting on the agency’s website.
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[Our emphasis] Using data collected under the new rule, OSHA will create the largest publicly available data set on work injuries and illnesses, enabling researchers to better study injury causation, identify new workplace safety hazards before they become widespread and evaluate the effectiveness of injury and illness prevention activities. OSHA will remove all personally identifiable information associated with the data before it is publicly accessible.
Under the new rule, all establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping regulation must electronically submit to OSHA injury and illness information from OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301. Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain industries* must electronically submit information from OSHA Form 300A only.
The new requirements take effect Aug. 10, 2016, with phased in data submissions beginning in 2017. These requirements do not add to or change an employer’s obligation to complete and retain injury and illness records under the Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses regulation.

Read the Complete AnnouncementFinal Rule (via Federal Register)

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