Author, Alyssa Burley, Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced Monday, April 30, 2018 it has “taken action to correct an error that was made with regard to implementing the final rule” which required some employers to electronically submit their injuring and illness reports via the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) online.
Federal OSHA has determined that Section 18(c)(7) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act requires employers in State-administered OSHA plans “to make reports to the Secretary in the same manner and to the same extent as if the plan were not in effect.” Therefore, federal OSHA’s statement asserts “employers must 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.”
According to the announcement, State Plans have been informed “that for Calendar Year 2017 all employers covered by State Plans will be expected to comply. 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 completed adoption of their own state rule.”
“Even though California has not yet adopted its own state rule, employers are advised to comply with federal OSHA’s directive to provide Form 300A data covering calendar year 2017.”
This announcement comes on the heels of a March 2018 report by Bloomberg Environment that indicated federal OSHA anticipated more than 350,000 worksites to submit Form 300A reports via the online portal, yet nearly 200,000 weren’t submitted by the December 31, 2017 deadline. That means only 153,653 Form 300A reports were submitted and another 60,992 worksites submitted reports that were not required.
In May 2017, Cal/OSHA published a statement indicating “California employers are not required to follow the new requirements and will not be required to do so until ‘substantially similar’ regulations go through formal rulemaking, which would culminate in adoption by the Director of the Department of Industrial Relations and approval by the Office of Administrative Law." However, with the recent announcement from federal OSHA, Cal/OSHA released a statement explaining that "even though California has not yet adopted its own state rule, employers are advised to comply with federal OSHA's directive to provide Form 300A data covering calendar year 2017." In addition, other states like Maryland, Minnesota, South Carolina, Utah, Washington and Wyoming may follow California's lead.
Rancho Mesa’s Incident Track® is an effective way to manage incidents and maintain required OSHA logs. As just one of the many “tracks” inside the Agency’s “Risk Management Center,” Incident Track can also generate electronic report files that can be uploaded into the Federal OSHA’s ITA online portal.
Contact Alyssa Burley with follow up questions about these OSHA requirements and/or an interest in learning more about tracking incidents through our client based portal.