Effective January 1, 2015, new OSHA (The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations go into effect regarding injury reporting and record-keeping requirements when an employee suffers a severe work-related injury or is killed on the job. The objective is to improve workplace safety by focusing OSHA resources and holding employers accountable for preventing workplace injuries and fatalities, which numbered 4,405 in 2013.

The rule expands the list of severe work-related injuries that all covered employers must report to OSHA. Workplaces that fall under OSHA jurisdiction are required to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or losses of an eye within 24 hours. Previously, employers were only required to report work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. 

All OSHA covered employers are required to comply with the new severe illness and injury reporting requirements including those exempt from maintaining injury and illness records. To help with compliance, OSHA is developing an online web tool for employers to report incidents electronically, in addition to the phone reporting options. 

Also, the rule updates the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep OSHA injury and illness records, due to relatively low occupational injury and illness rates. 

• As in the past, any employer with 10 or fewer employees (at all times during the previous calendar year), regardless of their industry classification, are exempt from record-keeping. 
• For employers with more than 10 employees, OSHA has updated the list of low hazard industries exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. The list is based on updated Bureau of Labor Statistics data segmented using NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) industry codes. 
  
  For more information about the new rule, visit OSHA's website at http://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014.
  OSHA Electronic Reporting Form for Employers