OSHA Recordkeeping and Injury Reporting for Small Crews

“Do I need an OSHA 300 log with five employees?” Usually not. But the question hides two separate duties, and only one of them depends on size. Keeping injury records is the one a small crew is usually spared. Reporting a death or a serious injury to OSHA is the one nobody is spared, and it runs on a clock measured in hours.

The duty every employer has: report the worst injuries

29 CFR §1904.39 sets two deadlines:

• A death: report within 8 hours after an employee dies as a result of a work-related incident.
• An in-patient hospitalization, an amputation or the loss of an eye: report within 24 hours.

OSHA’s reporting page is blunt about who this covers: “All employers under OSHA jurisdiction must report these incidents to OSHA, even employers who are exempt from routinely keeping OSHA records due to company size or industry.” §1904.1(a)(1) says the same in the rule itself.

The questions and answers in §1904.39(b) settle the common cases:

• What counts as a hospitalization. “A formal admission to the in-patient service of a hospital or clinic for care or treatment.” An admission only for observation or diagnostic testing is not reportable.
• What counts as an amputation. “The traumatic loss of a limb or other external body part,” including a partial loss, a fingertip with or without bone loss, and a part that was later reattached.
• Timing. A death is reportable if it happens within 30 days of the incident; a hospitalization, amputation or lost eye if it happens within 24 hours of it. If you learn of the event, or that it was work-related, only later, the 8 or 24 hours run from when you or your agent learn it.
• Road crashes. A motor vehicle accident on a public street or highway is not reportable, unless it happened in a construction work zone.
• Heart attacks. A work-related death or hospitalization from a heart attack must be reported; the Area Office director decides whether to investigate.

How to report

§1904.39(a)(3) gives three ways: by phone or in person to the OSHA Area Office nearest the site, by phone to OSHA’s toll-free central number, or electronically through the reporting form on OSHA’s website (osha.gov/report lists all three). If the Area Office is closed, a voicemail, fax or email to it does not count; use the toll-free number or the online form. Have ready what §1904.39(b)(2) asks for: the business name, the names of the employees affected, the location and time of the incident, the type of event and how many employees it involved, a contact person and their phone number, and a brief description.

Say a roofer’s helper falls from a ladder at 2:00 in the afternoon and is admitted to the hospital that evening. The report is due within 24 hours of the admission. If the owner is at the hospital with him, someone else may have to make that report. Decide now who makes the report when the owner cannot, and keep the reporting page saved on that person’s phone.

State plans can be stricter

OSHA notes that many states run their own safety and health programs and that “reporting requirements may vary by state,” though each state must have, or be developing, requirements at least as effective as OSHA’s. California is one example. Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8, §342 requires employers to report any serious injury or illness, or death, to Cal/OSHA “immediately,” which it defines as “as soon as practically possible but not longer than 8 hours” after the employer knows or with diligent inquiry would have known (up to 24 hours after the incident if the employer can show exigent circumstances). And §330(h) defines a serious injury more broadly than the federal list: in-patient hospitalization other than for observation or diagnostic testing, an amputation, the loss of an eye, or “any serious degree of permanent disfigurement.” If you work in a state-plan state, read that state’s rule; the federal one is the floor.

The duty that depends on size: keeping records

§1904.1(a)(1): “If your company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs you in writing that you must keep records under § 1904.41 or § 1904.42.” Three details decide whether that is you:

• Last year’s peak, not today’s headcount. §1904.1(b)(2) looks at your peak employment during the last calendar year. More than ten at any time means records this year.
• The whole company. The count covers every location together, not one shop or one crew (§1904.1(b)(1)).
• Everyone on the payroll. OSHA’s guidance counts “all full time, part time, temporary, and seasonal employees.” The owners of a sole proprietorship or partnership are not counted, but in a corporation, officers who are paid for their services are. A helper you call a subcontractor counts if he is in fact your employee; see 1099 or W-2.

Say a landscaper runs eight people year-round and adds four for the spring rush. At the peak of that spring the company had twelve employees, so it keeps OSHA records for the following calendar year, even if it is back to eight by June.

There is a second, separate exemption by industry (§1904.2): establishments in the industries listed in Appendix A to Subpart B need not keep records whatever their size. No construction industry is on that list, so a construction contractor with more than ten employees keeps records. A few service industries are on it, among them NAICS 8114, personal and household goods repair and maintenance, which includes appliance repair and maintenance (811412), and NAICS 5616, investigation and security services, which includes locksmiths (561622). An appliance repair shop or locksmith classified there can skip the log at any size; check your own code before relying on it.

Exempt or not, two things still apply: the 8- and 24-hour reports above, and §1904.42, which says that if the Bureau of Labor Statistics sends you its Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, you must complete and return it.

Once you pass ten: the three forms

§1904.29 requires the OSHA 300 Log, the 301 Incident Report and the 300A annual summary, or equivalent forms. An equivalent form must hold the same information and be completed with the same instructions; the rule notes that many employers use an insurance form instead of the 301, or add OSHA’s missing items to one. Enter each recordable case on the 300 and 301 within seven calendar days of learning of it.

What is recordable is set by §1904.7(a): a work-related injury or illness that causes death, days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid, or loss of consciousness, or a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional. First aid is defined by a list in §1904.7(b)(5)(ii); it includes non-prescription medication at non-prescription strength, bandages and butterfly bandages, tetanus shots, cleaning a surface wound, hot or cold packs, eye patches, removing splinters by simple means, finger guards, and drinking fluids for heat stress. The rule calls that “a complete list.” It names sutures and staples as medical treatment, and counts a non-prescription drug that a doctor or other licensed provider recommends at prescription strength as medical treatment too.

• Post the summary. §1904.32 requires you to review the log, complete the 300A, have a company executive certify it (in a sole proprietorship or partnership, an owner may), and post it from February 1 to April 30 of the following year.
• Keep the records five years after the end of the year they cover (§1904.33).
• Temp workers. When a temporary help service supplies workers and you supervise them day to day, OSHA’s guidance puts the recordkeeping on you, the host employer, not on the agency.
• Electronic filing. Under §1904.41(a)(1), an establishment with 20 to 249 employees in an industry listed in Appendix A to Subpart E must submit its 300A data electronically, through OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application, by March 2 of the following year. Construction (NAICS 23) and services to buildings and dwellings (5617) are on that list; 250 or more employees triggers the duty in any industry that keeps records. Below 20, you file only if OSHA notifies you (§1904.41(a)(3)). OSHA’s ITA Coverage Application checks whether an establishment must file.

What to do this week

1. Write the two deadlines (8 hours, 24 hours) and the reporting page on a card in every truck, and name a second person who reports when you cannot.
2. Count last year’s peak headcount, part-timers and seasonal help included. If it passed ten, get the forms from OSHA’s recordkeeping page and start the log now.
3. If you are in a state-plan state, read your state’s reporting rule.
4. Prevent the reports in the first place. Falls and silica dust have OSHA rules of their own, and heat is enforced without a final federal heat standard: see fall protection, silica dust and heat illness. For how your comp premium is figured, see workers’ comp and class codes.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and vary by state; check with the agency named above or a professional for your situation.