Certain Employers Required to Electronically Submit Form OSHA 300A By July 1

Some companies may not be aware that effective July 1, 2018, they are required to report certain information electronically to OSHA pursuant to the Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule.

Establishments with 250 or more employees that are required to keep injury and illness records, as well as 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 that covered establishments with 250 or more employees are only required to provide their 2017 Form 300A summary data. 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.

In April, OSHA announced that affected employers in state-plan states that have yet to adopt the electronic recordkeeping rule are nevertheless required to submit their 300A data by the July 1 deadline. (These states include California, Maryland, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.) Employers in those states are required to use federal OSHA's Injury Tracking Application (ITA) to submit their data.

Some states, such as Washington and Wyoming, have disputed federal OSHA's authority to require establishments under state plan jurisdiction to follow the federal requirements, and OSHA has admitted that it does not have the authority to cite employers in those states that fail to submit their 300A data by the July 1 deadline. Nevertheless, employers in state-plan states are advised to submit 300A data to federal OSHA by the July 1 deadline.