OSHA tightens reporting requirements for fatalities, injuries and illness

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued a new rule to tighten its fatality, injury and illness reporting requirements as of 2015.

Effective Jan. 1, employers will be required to report work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related hospitalizations, amputations or eye losses within 24 hours, OSHA said Thursday in a statement.

According to the statement, the current regulation only requires employers to report work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees; reporting single hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye is not required.

In addition, OSHA said it has updated the list of industries that are exempt from keeping OSHA injury and illness records unless otherwise stated by a state agency operating under the authority of OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new rule, like the current rule, states that any employer with 10 or fewer employees is free from routinely keeping records of worker injuries and illnesses, according to the statement.

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 4,405 workers were killed on the job in 2013,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez said in the statement. “Workplace injuries and fatalities are absolutely preventable, and these new requirements will help OSHA focus its resources and hold employers accountable for preventing them.”