On July 29, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) proposed changes to their Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements. This amendment, if adopted, will clarify “employers continuing obligation to make and maintain accurate records of each recordable injury and illness.” It states that every recordable case must be entered into the organization’s injury log, including cases not previously recorded. Under the rule, records of injuries and illnesses are to be maintained for five years. The proposed rule does not add any new compliance obligations, instead emphasizing the obligation of accurate record keeping.
Keeping a log of injuries and illnesses encompasses more than filing paperwork or data entry. This comprehensive log of moments when workplace safety was compromised allows employers to learn from past mistakes. Accidents happen, but allowing a dangerous situation to re-occur should never be acceptable. For this reason, of the many types of OSHA violations, the Willful Violation and the Repeated Violation are associated with the heaviest fines – reaching up to $70,000/violation.
According to Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health, “Accurate records are not simply paperwork, but have an important, in fact, life-saving purpose. They will enable employers, employees, researchers and the government to identify and eliminate the most serious workplace hazards – ones that have already caused injuries and illnesses to occur.”
Running a business involves keeping track of endless amounts of documents, paper or electronic. With the Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) aligned with the Globally Harmonized System of Classification and Labeling of Chemicals (GHS), companies have more documents to maintain than ever before. Despite the number of documents to manage, protecting employees from safety hazards should be a top priority for employers.
A centralized software system such as Quantum’s Q-Safety Suite will ease the process of managing and maintaining accurate records. From Incident Reporting to SDS Management, the Q-Safety Suite will relieve safety managers and employees of the tedium of sifting through notebooks, filing, and similar duties. Not only will companies save time, implementing safety software protects workers from hazardous situations and helps companies stay in compliance; the likelihood of committing a Willful Violation and/or Repeated Violation is greatly diminished. By using a software solution, everybody wins!
