After a bumpy start, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) new electronic injury and illness reporting system is finally ready for business today. Large and high-risk employers can begin using OSHA’s new web portal, called the Injury and Tracking Application (“ITA”), to report information from their 2016 OSHA Form 300A’s beginning August 1, 2017. It is accessible from the ITA Launch page.
Injury and Illness E-Reporting Rule
The web portal is a product of OSHA’s “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses” Final Rule that was published on May 12, 2016. The Final Rule contains two basic requirements: (1) large and high-risk employers must report their annual injury and illness data to OSHA electronically (the “electronic recordkeeping rule”) and (2) all employers must inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation (the “anti-retaliation rule”). Read more about the rule here.
Initially, electronic reporting was set to begin on July 1, 2017, and phased in over the next two years. The transition from paper to electronic data submission didn’t go ahead as planned. When OSHA announced that some of the collected data would be publicly searchable, industry groups filed a legal action in federal court (National Ass’n of Home Builders, et. al v. Acosta) challenging the final rule. With the lawsuit still pending, last May OSHA announced that it was postponing the July 1, 2017 submission date. Then, on June 28, 2017, OSHA published a notice of proposed rulemaking to officially delay the electronic compliance date to December 1, 2017. The notice of proposed rulemaking also indicates OSHA’s intent to reconsider, revise, or remove other provisions of the prior final rule.
Anti-retaliation Rule
Industry groups also filed a separate federal legal action (TEXO ABC/AGC Inc. v. Acosta) challenging the anti-retaliation portion of the final rule. The anti-retaliation provisions of the final rule require employers to inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation, require that an employer’s procedure for reporting work-related injuries and illnesses must be reasonable and not discourage reporting, and prohibit employers from retaliating against employees for reporting injuries and illnesses. The anti-retaliation provisions were effective August 10, 2016, but OSHA delayed their enforcement to December 1, 2016.
Posting Requirements
Presently, the final rule requires employers to inform employees of the anti-retaliation protection. This can be satisfied by posting the current the federal OSHA workplace posting or a conforming state-OSHA posting. It may be a requirement that is short-lived. Following the June 28 notice of proposed rulemaking, the two federal district courts granted unopposed motions to halt the litigation based OSHA’s expressed intention to reconsider provisions of the final rule. Since then, OSHA delivered on the promised notice of proposed rulemaking declaring its intention to “reconsider, revise, or remove” provisions of the final rule.