Environmental Health and Safety Blog | EHSWire

On September 11, 2014, U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced a final rule revision to the Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements. These revisions to 29 CFR 1904 are effective on January 1, 2015 and focus on two key requirements:

1. Severe work-related injury and fatality reporting to OSHA.
2. Industries partially exempt from routine recordkeeping requirements.

Last week’s blog detailed what is new with severe work-related injury and fatality reporting to OSHA.  This blog will review the changes to which industries OSHA requires to maintain injury and illness recordkeeping. There are 25 industries that are no longer partially exempt.  

The exemption is only ‘partial’ for recordkeeping and NOT for reporting …

The exemption is from routinely maintaining OSHA injury and illness records (OSHA 300 Logs).  This exemption is consider ‘partial’ as the company must provide these record if requested to do so in writing by OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), or a state agency operating under the authority of OSHA or BLS. 

All employers must report fatalities, in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye to OSHA, even if they are exempt from routinely keeping OSHA records.

Who is ‘partially’ exempt from keeping records under the new rule?

There are two types of employers that are partially exempt from routinely keeping injury and illness records.

Employer Type 1:

Ten or fewer employees for the entire company at all times during the previous calendar year are exempt from routinely keeping OSHA injury and illness records regardless of the company industry classification. This is the same as the previous rule.

Employer Type 2:

Certain industries with historically relatively low injury and illness rates are partially exempt from routinely keeping OSHA injury and illness records.  The new rule as an updated list of industries. It is important to note that 25 industries that are no longer partially exempt. 

Which industries are partially exempt?

Since 1982 OSHA, this list has included establishments in the divisions of retail trade; finance, insurance and real estate; and the service industry if the three-year average lost workday case rate for their major industry group was 75 percent below the overall three-year average of the lost workday case rate for private industry. The updated list uses the injury and illness rate threshold is based on more recent Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. The exempt industries are listed by NAICS code. The updated list can be found here

Which industries are NO LONGER exempt?

OSHA has provided a list of 25 industry classifications that will be required to maintain illness and injury records starting January 1, 2015.  Check out the table below -

 Click here for additional information about what industries are required to maintain OSHA injury and illness records.