OSHA issues final rule on electronic record-keeping requirements

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Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials say a new rule should nudge employers to double down on safety in the workplace, but construction industry groups are arguing the changes are more of a shove — in the wrong direction.

OSHA announced Wednesday it had issued a final rule requiring employers to take records concerning illnesses and injuries and submit them once a year for inclusion in a public database. Companies have always had to keep such records at work sites for OSHA inspectors to review but previously were not obliged to submit the information electronically.

Although the new requirements will take effect Aug. 10, the first reporting deadline won’t come until July 2018. Not all companies will be subject to the same rules.

The requirements will be heaviest for companies with 250 or more employees. Among the submissions they will have to make will be incident summaries, running logs of workplace injuries and individual injury reports.

Companies that employee between 20 and 250 workers, in contrast, will only have to send in simplified summaries of work-related injuries and illnesses.

David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for Occupational Safety and Health, said making the data public will encourage companies to do everything in their power to make their work sites safe.

He said he expects the system’s effects to be similar to those of restaurant-inspection reports. Companies with the worst records will be the most likely to lose business after accident information has been made public.

“We’ll improve the safety performance of thousands of workers without performing more inspections,” Michaels said. “No employer wants to be seen publicly as operating a dangerous workplace.”

OSHA officials also expect companies will be under more pressure to improve safety when they can easily compare their records with those of other companies.

Representatives of the construction industry were not rushing out to embrace the new system, though.

The Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., a national group largely representing non-union contractors, released a statement on Wednesday disputing the notion that the new rules will lead to safer workplaces. ABC officials warned of unintended consequences, saying the required data submissions could lead to the release of information that was better left private.

“OSHA has exceeded its authority by forcing companies to reveal confidential business details to the public,” Greg Sizemore, ABC vice president of health, safety, environment and workforce development, said in the statement.

OSHA officials responded to such concerns by promising to not disclose any information that could be used to identify a worker who was hurt. Only company names, types of injuries and dates and similar information would be revealed.

Other industry representatives were meanwhile calling on federal officials to better specify exactly what sort of information must be submitted.

“We feel that what OSHA needs to do first is give contractors far more clarity in terms of what ought to be reported,” Brian Turmail, spokesman for the Associated General Contractors of America, said on Wednesday.

Turmail said since OSHA officials are being somewhat vague about what information they are requesting, companies will be likely respond by providing the absolute minimum that they can get by with legally. Contractors who go beyond providing “just the facts” could risk making themselves look worse than they actually are, especially when they are compared with companies that are being relatively reticent.

AGC of America officials generally agree with OSHA’s intentions, Turmail said, “but we’ve got to be able to compare apples to apples.”