Articles Tagged with ''injury and illness reporting''

Beginning January 1, 2015, there will be a change to what covered employers are required to report to OSHA. Employers will now be required to report all work-related fatalities within 8 hours and all in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye within 24 hours of finding about the incident.

With OSHA’s new recordkeeping rules employers must notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours.

Hot work safety, Total Worker Health and an extension for OSHA’s controversial injury and illness tracking rule were among the top EHS-related stories featured on ISHN.com this week:

Disciplining employees for violating safety and health rules is a critical component of any good safety and health program. OSHA's recent policy on employee discipline for violating safety and health rules undercuts the use of such discipline and encourages employees to consider possible claims for retaliation.

The National Safety Council today released the 2014 edition of Injury Facts®, which details safety statistics and trends across the U.S. and worldwide. Injury Facts has been the Council’s go-to resource for all safety statistics for more than 90 years.

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is urging OSHA to set aside its proposed rule to publicly disclose injury and illness data, saying that it will not contribute to the goal of improving workplace safety.

OSHA will be spending the rest of 2014 holding public hearings and reviewing the approximately 3,000 comments it has already received on its proposed crystalline silica rule. Although OSHA chief Dr. David Michaels has stated the the silica rule – which would reduce occupational exposure limits to the substance – is the agency’s top priority, the issue is “a long, long way from every being finalized,” according to Aaron K. Trippler of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA).

The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against AT&T in Ohio after an OSHA investigation found that  the company suspended 13 workers because they reported injuries.

Advocacy group Public Citizen is characterizing opposition to OSHA’s proposal to require electronic reporting of injury and illness data as corporations worried about being “named and shamed” by the online posting of the data that is part of the proposal.

OSHA’s proposal to improve the tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses will either improve worker safety or pose an undue burden on employers. Those are among the reactions being voiced by safety advocates and industry groups as OSHA holds public meetings on the proposal.