The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will kick off 2015 with a new reporting requirement for employers. Beginning January 1 employers under federal OSHA jurisdiction will be required to report all work-related fatalities within eight hours and all in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye within 24 hours of finding out about the incident. Employers in states with OSHA-approved state plans may have different implementation dates.
To facilitate implementation of this new requirement, OSHA will hold a Twitter discussion on December 11, 2014, to answer employers’ questions. Employers can join the live Twitter Q&A from 1:00-2:00 p.m. Eastern time by using the hashtag #Reporting2015.
Previously, employers were required to report all workplace fatalities and all injuries when three or more workers were hospitalized in the same incident.
Employers will be able to report these incidents to OSHA in three ways.
- Employers can call the nearest area OSHA office during normal business hours;
- They can call the 24-hour OSHA hotline at 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742); and
- Employers will be able to report online at www.osha.gov/report_online once OSHA finalizes the online reporting tool.
IDFA expects OSHA will post the information from these reports online, because they previously posted information on fatalities and group injuries. Visit OSHA’s web page on the reporting requirement for more details.
Members with questions may contact Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.