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OSHA Delays Electronic Injury, Illness Reporting Deadline

OSHA

The controversial Electronic Injury and Illness Reporting rule from OSHA was supposed to go into effect on December 1, 2017, but OSHA has recently delayed that enforcement to allow those affected to become familiar with the new electronic reporting system.

On November 22, OSHA delayed the date by which employers have to submit their injury and illness data to the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) from December 1 to December 15, amounting to a two week delay.

 This year, all companies that employ at least 20 employees must submit their OSHA Form 300A.  Next year, employers that have over 250 employees will be required to submit forms 300, 300A, and 301 by July 1, 2018.  Those with 20-249 employees will still only be required to submit form 300A, also by July 1, 2018.  In 2019 and future years, all applicable information must be submitted by March 2.

Not all states are required to submit their reports electronically, as several are covered by OSHA-approved state plans that haven’t adopted the requirement.  Those states are: California, Maryland, Minnesota, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

OSHA is also continuing to review all of the other requirements of the injury and illness reporting rules and plans to issue a notice in 2018, which could remove or revise certain components.

Full story: U.S. Department of Labor’s OSHA Extends Compliance Date for Electronically Submitting Injury, Illness Reports to December 15, 2017 | OSHA

OSHA has long used the language in the OSH act to find and hold multiple employers accountable for the actions of another on construction job sites.  For decades, OSHA would not only cite the employer whose employees were exposed to hazards, but would also cite the employer who was designated the “controlling employer” on-site, which is most often the general contractor.

There is an opportunity to revolutionize the way we protect construction workers from fall hazards while dramatically reducing waste and inefficiency in the construction industry. The Hilmerson Safety Rail System™ was designed and engineered with feedback from industry experts with one goal in mind: Reinvent the guardrail to eliminate inefficiencies, cut costs, send zero waste to landfills, and improve workplace safety. 

The controversial Electronic Injury and Illness Reporting rule from OSHA was supposed to go into effect on December 1, 2017, but OSHA has recently delayed that enforcement to allow those affected to become familiar with the new electronic reporting system.

High winds can cause problems in many situations on a job site, especially with cranes and scaffolds.  A horrific crane collapse in downtown New York City was caught on tape after a gust of wind knocked it down in early 2016.  Last week, high winds caused more problems at construction sites, as it knocked over a scaffold above a busy sidewalk and sent a suspended scaffold swinging out of control and crashing into a building.

Contact with overhead power lines is a major hazard when working on most construction sites and especially when working from elevated platforms or with heavy machinery. 

In most aspects of construction, communication and training is absolutely key to running a successful project and business. That is especially true when it comes to safety on the job site.  One of the most popular ways of communicating safety hazards to the field staff is through tool box talks.

As annoying as it may be to deal with sometimes, there is a good reason why trucks carrying oversized loads have spotters and flaggers.  We’ve seen the worst of what can happen when the spotter fails to alert truck drivers in time, like the one that caused a 2013 Washington State bridge collapse, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.