An OSHA update from NIA legal counsel. Please read the following and take note of the deadlines for your business.

The new e-filing requirement by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has been fraught with start-up problems. First, there was the delay on the initial e-filing requirement, which delayed the date for e-filing OSHA 300A’s from July 1, 2017, until December 31, 2017. Therefore, all employers with 20 or more employees in 2016 were required to e-file their OSHA 300A forms for 2016 (the form posted at their worksites from February 1, 2017, until April 30, 2017, by midnight on December 31, 2017.

The second phase of the new electronic recordkeeping rule was to go into effect on July 1, 2018. On this date all employers with 20 or more employees in 2017 are to e-file their OSHA 300A forms for 2017.

The second part of the new rule was to require all employers with 250 or more employees in 2017 to e-file their OSHA 300 and 301 forms by July 1, 2018. In 2017, however, the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) filed for a lawsuit in federal District Court in Oklahoma challenging the authority of OSHA to issue an electronic reporting rule. This case is still pending. As a result of this action by NAHB, OSHA agreed to begin the process of rulemaking to revisit at least the requirement for filing the OSHA 300 and 301 forms. According to the most recent status report filed with the court by OSHA, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is currently being reviewed by OSHA pending publication in the Federal Register.

While all of this is occurring, OSHA has announced that it will not accept any OSHA 300 or 301 forms on its electronic filing site. Thus, the e-filing requirement for the OSHA 300 and 301 forms has been, at least temporarily, delayed. This means that all employers with 20 or more employees in 2017 must only e-file their 300A forms by July 1. No other e-filing is required, no matter the size of the employer.

Please remember that the e-filing requirement, now limited to the 300A forms, will be on March 2, 2019.

For more information, please visit https://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting/index.html.