Expanded OSHA Rules
By Beginning Jan. 1, OSHA rules will go into effect that may reveal higher daily death and injury counts on the job. Although most workplaces are far safer today than in the past, terrible accidents do occur, and the agency is implementing some broader reporting requirements for employers.
The new rule expands the list of severe work-related injuries that all employers with 10 or more employees must report to OSHA. The reports must be made within eight hours of the event. Reports also must be submitted within 24 hours for any work-related hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye. Previously, employers had to report only hospitalizations of three or more employees resulting from a workplace accident or illness.
Ridiculous that this isn’t already the case.
Little less thrilled about this:
The other big change in the new rules is an update of the list of industries that are exempt from routine injury and illness reporting requirements based on their “relatively low occupational injury and illness rates.” That change possibly could reduce some reporting requirements, but the full effect isn’t yet known.
I don’t think exempting industries is a good idea here because there are almost ways workplaces can be made safer and healthier. If office work seems like a place that should be exempted from OSHA requirements (and I don’t know if it is exempted or will be but it seems likely), what about ergonomic standards that could make that work healthier and happier for employees?