The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a set of revised recordkeeping rules that ask employers to provide more information about health and safety incidents in the workplace. OSHA believes the rule changes, which came out last week, will help identify trouble spots at companies where there could be danger to more workers.
Before the updated rules, OSHA only asked that covered employers notify the agency when workplace fatalities occurred, or when three or more employees are hospitalized for work-related reasons. After the newly announced rules kick in—they will become official at the start of 2015—covered companies still will have to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities, but also will have to let them know when only one employee is hospitalized and when an employee experiences amputation or the loss of an eye on the job. Fatalities will have to be reported within eight hours of finding out about the death; hospitalization, amputation or eye loss will have to be reported within 24 hours.
