With the goal of improving workplace safety, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is giving employers what they call a "nudge." The nudge takes the form of requiring some companies to publish worker injury reports online. New rules ratifying that policy will kick in for affected employers generally beginning in 2017. Here are the highlights.

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New OSHA Rules
Spotlight
Workplace
Injuries, Illnesses

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Currently employers must report work-related injuries or illnesses and
maintain a log of these occurrences for review by the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA). The log must be available upon request during
an OSHA inspection. However, newly finalized regulations mandate that
certain employers submit reports electronically, on an annual basis. Some of
the data will be posted on OSHA's website, because, the agency says,
"behavioral economics tells us that making injury information publicly
available will 'nudge' employers to focus on safety.“
The new reporting requirement takes effect in 2017. It's applicable to all
employers with at least 250 employees and to employers with at least 20
workers in 66 industry categories deemed to be hazardous. Roughly 80,000
employers fall within that category.
OSHA's roster of hazardous industries includes many that one would expect,
such as manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fishing, as well as some that
would appear less hazardous to employee health, for example, home
furnishing stores, specialty food stores and museums.

3. Retaliation Protections
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In addition to the expanded reporting requirements, a provision of the new
regulations that takes effect Aug. 10, 2016, features "anti-retaliation
protections." These rules:
• Require you to inform employees of their right to report work-related
injuries and illnesses "free from retaliation,“
• Clarify the existing implicit requirement that your procedure for reporting
work-related injuries and illnesses be reasonable and not "deter or
discourage" employees from reporting, and
• Incorporate the current law's prohibition on retaliating against employees
for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses.

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The regulations allow for punishment of employers deemed to have retaliated
against employees for reporting injuries, even if the injured employees failed
to file a complaint within 30 days, as previously required. Some business
organizations, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have indicated they
might challenge that provision in court, however, arguing that it goes beyond
what's authorized by law.
Employers will need to tread carefully with generous workplace safety
incentives to ensure that they could not be viewed as illegally discouraging
employees from reporting on-the-job injuries.

5. Drug Testing Concern
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Similarly, if you require employees to undergo drug testing following an
accident, be sure the policy is clearly spelled out and consistently
administered, to limit the chances that it would be deemed as an illegal
deterrent to employees reporting injuries.

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Recordkeeping of serious injuries and illnesses is done by filing forms 300,
300A and 301. The deadline for covered employers to electronically file their
forms 300A (a summary document) for 2016 is July 1, 2017.
Employers in the 250-plus employee category will be required by July 1 of
2018 to file all 2017 forms — 300A, 300 and 301. The smaller employers in
high-risk industries will still only file the 300A at that time. In 2019, the
deadline for filing 2018 reports advances to March 2.
Given the prospect of public disclosure of injury and illness reports, employers
may decide to review OSHA's criteria for what must be reported. The
reporting regulations fall under 29 Code of Federal Regulations 1904.

7. Defining "Work-Related"
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According to the regulations, "You must consider an injury or illness to be
work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused
or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-
existing injury or illness. … Work-relatedness is presumed for injuries and
illnesses resulting from events or exposures occurring in the work
environment, unless covered by an exception in [the regulations].“
But how serious must a medical problem be in order to be reportable? In
general, a recordable injury or illness under OSHA is one that requires medical
treatment beyond first aid or that results in days away from work, restricted
work or transfer to another job, or loss of consciousness. Regardless of those
stipulations, if a physician or other licensed health care professional deems
the work-related condition as a significant injury or illness, it must be
recorded.
They also feature a list of injury and illness categories that are not reportable.
Here are some highlights, featured in Sec. 1904 of the OSHA regulations:

8. What's Not Reportable?
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The injury or illness involves signs or symptoms that surface at work but result
solely from a non-work-related event or exposure that occurs outside the
work environment.
• The injury or illness results solely from voluntary participation in a
wellness program or in a medical, fitness or recreational activity such as
blood donation, physical examination, flu shot, exercise class, racquetball
or baseball.
• The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee eating, drinking or
preparing food or drink for personal consumption (whether purchased on
the employer's premises or brought in).
• The injury or illness is solely the result of an employee doing personal
tasks (unrelated to his or her employment) at the establishment outside
of the employee's assigned working hours.

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• The injury or illness is solely the result of personal grooming, self
medication for a non-work-related condition or is intentionally self-
inflicted.
• The injury or illness is caused by a motor vehicle accident and occurs on a
company parking lot or company access road while the employee is
commuting to or from work.
• The illness is the common cold or flu (Note: contagious diseases such as
tuberculosis, brucellosis, hepatitis A or plague are considered work-
related if the employee is infected at work).
• The illness is a mental illness. Mental illness will not be considered work-
related unless the employee voluntarily provides the employer with an
opinion from a physician or other licensed health care professional with
appropriate training and experience (psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric
nurse practitioner, or other qualified professional) stating that the
employee has a mental illness that is work-related.

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If there have never been any injuries in your workplace, congratulations.
However, don't let that lull you into a false sense of security. OSHA's new
regulations up the ante and give you a good reason to review your current
policies and procedures with respect to workplace-related illnesses and
injuries.

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