OSHA Form 300A, Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses, is used to summarize the recordable injuries and illnesses for the previous year and includes the number of days work was lost or restricted, and the types of injuries and illnesses that occurred.
Information about the company, including the average number of employees and total hours worked by all employees, must also be recorded.
Form 300A must be posted from February 1 through April 30 each year. If no recordable incidents or illnesses occurred during the previous year, the form must still be completed and posted reflecting zero recordable cases. The information in Form 300A is based on information recorded in OSHA Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses. However, certain employers are exempt from these reporting requirements.
Employers with 10 or fewer employees are not required to prepare Form 300 or Form 300A. In addition, only industries within certain North American Industrial Classification (NAICS) codes are required to comply with these record-keeping requirements. A list of exempt NAICS codes has been published by the Department of Labor. This List includes NAICS code 5417 (Scientific Research and Development Services such as establishments engaged in conducting biotechnology).
Even if your company doesn’t fall under mandatory recording, we encourage as best practice that companies use the forms to record injuries and illnesses. In addition, in some cases, companies in exempt industries may specifically be asked to record injuries and illnesses by OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or a state agency.
Also keep in mind that all employers, including those exempted by reason of company size or industry classification, must report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.
As I discussed in our May 16, 2020 blog, some workplace-related cases of COVID-19 are OSHA recordable. These include cases where there is objective evidence which is reasonably available to the employer that a COVID-19 case may be work-related and the case involves one or more of OSHA’s general recording criteria: death, days away from work, restricted work, or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness. OSHA has recently published FAQs and revised enforcement guidance to assist with determining the recordability of COVID-19 cases.
For additional information about OSHA injury and illness reporting requirements, or for help with preparing your company’s OSHA 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses form, please email [email protected].
This blog was written by Beth Graham, our Associate Director of Quality, Research, and Training who has been with Safety Partners Inc. for the last 11 years.