Recently, OSHA cited a large, Midwestern home and building supplier with $110,000 in proposed penalties for continually failing to document and report employee injuries and illnesses.
In October 2009, following an inspection at one of the supplier's Ohio faciltities, OSHA issued four willful citations with a proposed penalty of $40,000. Based on a November 2009 inspection, OSHA issued a second location seven willful citations with a proposed penalty of $70,000. A willful violation is one committed with intentional, knowing or voluntary disregard for the law's requirement, or plain indifference to employee safety and health.
OSHA requires employers to record and maintain occupational injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 300 log. The agency found that the 300 Logs for these locations were deficient and incomplete, as the employer failed to record injuries and illnesses as required.
When you consider this along with the fact that OSHA extended the Recordkeeping National Emphasis Program (NEP)and is hiring more compliance officers, will the agency be at your door next?
KellerOnline's News & Alerts section can help keep you up-to-date on what OSHA is doing. You will find a topic, Recordkeeping (injury and illness), in the Topic Index which has ez Explanations, the instructions for the Form 300, 301 and 300A, and the regulation itself. Other resources in this topic include OSHA's Letters of Interpretation, links to the Compliance Directives, and formula calculators to assist you with figuring out your DART and incident rates.
The Interactive Toolsprovides you with the Incidents (Form 300/301) tool to assist you with recording and tracking your injuries – including near-misses – for both OSHA recordkeeping purposes and your own workplace safety plan.
Have questions about injury and illness recordkeeping? Check out the archived Webcast titled “OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping” for more information.
To learn more about this subject, visit the J.J. Keller & Associates Web site at www.jjkeller.com.