OSHA Requires More Injury and Illness Data from Some Employers

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has released a new standard requiring employers in high-hazard industries to submit more injury and illness data. It requires some employers to report not only 300A data electronically but also 300 log and 301 information for some of their locations.

OSHA intends to publish this data, proposed in 2022, along with the company name on a public website. Starting January 1, 2024, OSHA will enforce this reporting requirement and calendar year 2023 data must be in the system by March 2, 2024.

If an employer has establishments with a primary function in specific categories (listed below), and those locations have 100 or more employees at any point during the year, the proposed regulation change will affect those locations, and their data will be made public.

Read on to learn more about the new rule and whether your company may be affected.

Who Will Have to Report OSHA 300 Log and 301 Data Electronically?

Not all establishments must keep OSHA 300 logs. If an establishment falls under the OSHA partially exempt status listing, it only has to keep logs if requested in writing by OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Additionally, if an establishment falls under this partially exempt status, it does not have to electronically report any data.

The new requirement to electronically report 300 log and 301 form data is based on establishment size parameters and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code of the primary function of each establishment.

For those establishments with 100 or more employees with a primary function listed within the 2017 NAICS codes in appendix B of Subpart E of 1904 of the new standard, there will be a substantial increase in the amount of data required to be reported in the OSHA incident tracking application. In addition to electronically submitting the 300A summary form for that establishment as under the current regulation, these employers must report all data fields from their 300 logs and most data fields from their 301 forms.

View a list of the NAICS codes affected here.

The 301 form is like a first report of injury but more detailed in some areas.

In the initial proposal for the regulation change, OSHA stated that some employers with establishments that have 250 or more workers will no longer have to electronically report 300A summary data, depending on the NAICS code involved. This is no longer the case. During the comment and review period, OSHA reversed this decision and will keep all current requirements to report 300A data in place for all non-exempt establishments with 250 or more employees.

The requirement to report 300A data for establishments with 20–249 employees with NAICS codes listed in Appendix A of Subpart E of 1904 will also remain in place.

Review both NAICS code lists carefully. Some four-digit NAICS codes show up on both lists and many four-digit NAICS codes which would be included in the two-digit parent code in Appendix A are also included in Appendix B. Just because your NAICS code shows up in Appendix A does not mean OSHA doesn’t require you to report 300 log and 301 data electronically.

• Partially exempt establishments do not need to report any data electronically.
• Establishments with 20–249 employees that currently must report 300A data electronically must continue to do so.
• Establishments with 250 or more employees that currently must report 300A data electronically must continue to do so.
• Establishments with 100 or more employees that show up in the list of four-digit NAICS codes included in Appendix B of Subpart E of 1904 must also report 300 log data and 301 form data annually.

OSHA Plans to Make the Reports Public

OSHA states that it plans to use these electronic reports to identify and respond to emerging health and safety hazards, and it also plans to make all data except certain personally identifiable information (PII) of employees available to the public. A previous OSHA official once used the words “public shaming” to describe the publishing of this data, so OSHA’s intent in taking this step has been clear from the start. Once OSHA makes this data public, anyone can access a company’s safety data, narratives of accidents, accident counts, accident locations, injury types, and any other information contained in the 300 log and 301 form that is not considered PII.

While some employer OSHA 300A forms are already available on the OSHA website, and certain log information can be accessed by employees or an employee representative via a Freedom of Information Act request, posting this new information represents a new level of data availability. The implications for contract and other negotiations remain to be seen.

NAICS codes are a main determiner of which establishments must report this additional data, and many establishments do not fit neatly into a single NAICS code. In other words, there are differences between establishments with the same NAICS code, which can make establishment-to-establishment comparisons misleading. This has long been a challenge for safety professionals seeking to build a reliable bank of key performance indicators for safety programs. Third parties may use this data for comparison purposes, which would be problematic.

What Industries Will Be Affected by the Proposed Changes?

The list below includes a summary of types of the more than 100 NAICS categories that will be affected by the new regulation. Review the complete listing and the number of employees to determine if your establishment is affected.

• Forestry, lumber, and building materials
• Warehousing
• Several different types of manufacturers, including architectural and structural metals
• Food processing and manufacturing
• Plastic products manufacturing
• Building foundation and exterior construction
• Seafood product preparation and packaging
• Machine shops
• Wholesalers of many types
• Stores of various kinds, including grocery stores, department stores, and general merchandise
• Air transportation
• Hospitals and healthcare of various types
• Long-term and assisted care
• Special food services (delivered and prepared in trucks or onsite)
• Multiple types of hospitality operations
• Beverage manufacturing
• Motor vehicle, body, and trailer manufacturing
• Automotive part sales of different types

Choosing the Proper NAICS Code

Choosing the proper NAICS code for each location within a business has always been important. Choosing the wrong NAICS code under this new regulation could cost an employer time, money, and possibly problematic publicity by requiring additional data collection and submission as well as having its data unnecessarily published.

When thinking about this NAICS code selection process, remember that OSHA will use the reported NAICS code to determine which peers to compare the company to and to determine if each establishment is running high injury rates and should be targeted for a future visit.

As stated above, when choosing an NAICS code for each establishment, the primary activity of that establishment is the main factor on which to base that decision. The “primary activity” is defined by the Census Bureau as a revenue-determined number, but employers sometimes consider hours worked and employee count dedicated to each activity at each establishment. The Census Bureau has an NAICS research tool to help define the primary activity of an establishment. See the section titled “Determining an Establishment’s Industry Classification” starting on page 19.

OSHA has begun publishing information related to these changes on their sites, including a fact sheet posted on its recordkeeping page.

If you are unsure of what this means for you based on the current NAICS codes for your establishments, contact your Woodruff Sawyer service team. We can help you determine if or how the proposed changes will affect your establishments.