Later this month (March 26-28), OSHA will hold hearings in Washington on its proposal to change how injury and illness data is recorded and reported by employers. The recordkeeping proposal was announced by the agency Jan. 25, and appears in the Feb. 2, 1996, Federal Register. It can also be accessed by going to OSHA's World Wide Web home page at http://www.osha.gov/ and accessing the "What's New" section.

In an age when "paperwork burden" is a politically incorrect term, OSHA's intent with this proposal is to take some of the confusion out of recordkeeping. Also, the recordkeeping requirement will be lifted for thousands and thousands of small businesses as OSHA proposes to expand its exemption from firms with 10 or less employees to now blanket those with 19 or fewer employees. Ease-of-use is also an issue: The agency is proposing to reduce the size of its forms, and allow employers to keep records on computers, with print-outs used for posting purposes.