OSHA Extends Date for Electronically Reporting Workplace Injuries and Illnesses

Author: Robert S. Teachout, XpertHR Legal Editor

UPDATE: OSHA has announced that it will continue to accept 2016 OSHA Form 300A data through the Injury Tracking Application until midnight on December 31, 2017, and will not take enforcement action against employers that submit reports before the final entry date. The ITA will no longer accept 2016 data beginning January 1, 2018.

November 28, 2017

Employers covered by federal workplace safety recordkeeping regulations have an additional two weeks to electronically file their 2016 injury and illness data. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has extended the date by which employers must electronically report their Form 300A data through the agency's Injury Tracking Application (ITA) to December 15, 2017.

In its announcement, OSHA said it extended the deadline to give "affected employers additional time to become familiar with [the] new electronic reporting system" that was rolled out on August 1, 2017. The agency developed the ITA following the adoption of final rules in May 2016 regarding injury and illness data collection and recordkeeping. The rule requires certain employers to electronically submit injury and illness information they already are required to keep under existing OSHA regulations.

The delayed filing date applies to employers with 250 or more employees covered by the recordkeeping regulation and establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries. The larger companies will be required to submit information electronically from all 2017 forms (300A, 300, and 301) by July 1, 2018, while the smaller employers will only need to file their Forms 300A. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, the information must be submitted by March 2.

Employers in the following states, which have not adopted the electronic filing requirement in their OSHA-approved State Plans, do not have to electronically file 2016 Form 300A injury and illness data:

  • California;
  • Maryland;
  • Minnesota;
  • South Carolina;
  • Utah;
  • Washington; and
  • Wyoming.

State and local governmental establishments in Illinois, Maine, New Jersey and New York also are exempt from using the ITA to submit their data. However, the final rule requires OSHA State Plan states to adopt substantially identical requirements to the final rule's requirements within six months after publication.