Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. David Michaels, explained the benefits of this rule revision; "OSHA will now receive crucial reports of fatalities and severe work-related injuries and illnesses that will significantly enhance the agency’s ability to target our resources to save lives and prevent further injury and illness. This new data will enable the agency to identify the workplaces where workers are at the greatest risk and target our compliance assistance and enforcement resources accordingly."

In addition to the reporting requirements change, OSHA has updated the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. These exemptions are due to the relatively low occupational injury and illness rates within those industries.

All employers that are covered by the Occupational Safety & Health Act are required to comply with OSHA’s new severe injury and illness reporting requirements. This includes those employers that are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records. More information on recordkeeping rule revisions can be found on OSHA’s website.

 Learn how to comply by January 1, 2015 by attending one of our OSHA #7845 Recordkeeping Rule Seminars. Find a course near you by visiting the Mid-South OSHA Training Institute Education Center site.