On April 30, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it made an error regarding implementation of the 2016 Electronic Injury Reporting and Anti-Retaliation final rule and determined all affected employers are required to submit injury and illness data in the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) online portal, even if the employer is covered by a State Plan that has not completed adoption of their own state rule. 

Given the error identified during its review of the final rule (also known as Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses), OSHA announced the following corrective action to comply with Section 18(c)(7) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and relevant OSHA regulations pertaining to State Plans:

An employer covered by a State Plan that has not completed adoption of a state rule must provide Form 300A data for Calendar Year 2017.  Employers are required to submit their data by July 1, 2018. There will be no retroactive requirement for employers covered by State Plans that have not adopted a state rule to submit data for Calendar Year 2016.

Learn which establishments are covered by this requirement and need to provide their data for Calendar Year 2017 through OSHA’s ITA. For additional information on the final rule, visit the Department of Labor's (DOL) website.

Background:

Under OSHA’s electronic reporting final rule, certain employers were required to electronically submit the information from their completed 2016 Form 300A by Dec. 15, 2017. 

OSHA began accepting calendar year 2017 Form 300A data in January. All covered establishments are required to submit the information by July 1, 2018.

The following information on electronic reporting is available on the DOL website:

Establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping regulation must submit information from their 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, the information must be submitted by March 2. Note: at the time of this writing, the OSHA website states: “OSHA is not accepting Form 300 and 301 information at this time. OSHA announced that it will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to reconsider, revise or remove provisions of the "Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses" final rule, including the collection of the Forms 300/301 data. The agency is currently drafting that NPRM and will seek comment on those provisions.”

Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries must submit information from their 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, the information must be submitted by March 2.

Note: Enforcement of the anti-retaliation provisions of the final rule went into effect on Dec. 1, 2016.

In 2016, ABC filed a lawsuit against the final rule, which remains pending.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or opinion.