Like the inevitability of death and taxes, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) can always be counted on to ratchet up enforcement efforts against employers each year. 2016 appears to be no different. The year begins with the agency continuing to sharpen its emphasis on inspecting and citing employers who violate its recordkeeping standard. This takes on greater importance because the reporting requirement changes that went into effect in 2015 had a significant impact on the businesses that OSHA will be inspecting. These reporting requirements have become a key element in OSHA’s enforcement program.

OSHA Reporting Rules

Under the 2015 recordkeeping rule changes, all employers are required to contact OSHA within 24 hours following an occurrence of any in-patient hospitalizations, amputations or loss of an eye. This supplements the still-existing requirement to contact OSHA within eight hours following a fatality. It should be noted that OSHA requires that all employers report all work-related heart attacks that result in a fatality. Employers need to make sure that the heart attack was, in fact, work-related prior to contacting OSHA.

For reporting compliance, employers have three options when contacting OSHA: (1) call the nearest area office, (2) call OSHA’s 24-hour hotline 1-800-321-OSHA (6742), or (3) complete a report online.

Recordkeeping and Posting Requirements

Also in 2015, OSHA added new categories of employers who are required to maintain and post OSHA injury and illness records going forward. All employers who are not partially exempt were required to complete and post their 2015 annual summary, known as the 300A, by Feb. 1, 2016, and keep it posted until April 30, 2016. Employers who missed the February 1 posting deadline should post the 300A summary as quickly as possible and date it on the day it is signed. Late-posting employers should not back-date the 300A summary since such action could be viewed as falsification of a document by OSHA. Employers must utilize the annual summary form to comply with the posting requirements. The form is available for download from OSHA at www.osha.gov. Even if you have no recordable injury or illness, the employer must still complete the 300 logs and post the 300A summary for each establishment.

Although the OSHA recordkeeping standard has been in place for many years, there are provisions that are frequently misunderstood or overlooked which can and have led to OSHA citations. Such mistakes involving the 300A summary are discussed below.

Executive Certification

OSHA’s recordkeeping standard requires a certification of the 300A summary by a company executive. Four specific management officials may be considered “company executives” for purposes of certifying the 300A summary: an owner of the company, an officer of the corporation, the highest-ranking company official working at the location, or the immediate supervisor of the highest-ranking company official working at the location.

This official must certify that he or she has reviewed the OSHA 300 logs and related records, and reasonably believes, based on knowledge of the process underlying the development of the data, that the posted summary is accurate and complete.

OSHA describes this requirement as imposing “senior management accountability” for the integrity and accuracy of the reported data. Human resources managers and safety directors normally cannot sign the OSHA 300A summary unless they are also officers of the company.

Number of Employees and Hours Worked

The annual 300A summary requires employers to include a calculation of the annual average number of employees covered by the log and the total hours worked by all covered employees. The purpose of this requirement is to help employers compare the relative frequency of significant occupational injuries and illnesses at their workplace as compared to other establishments.

Posting Process

The 300A summary must be posted in each establishment in a conspicuous place or places where notices to employees are customarily posted. Covered employers are under a duty to ensure that the posted annual summary is not altered, defaced or obscured during the entire posting period.

Those employers who maintain these records in electronic form should still retain the signed posted summary after the February 1 to April 30 posting period to prove that it was properly signed.

Employers should also provide copies of the 300A summary to any employee who may not see the posted summary if they do not report to a fixed location on a regular basis. Even where an establishment has had no recordable injuries or illnesses, you must still post the 300A summary with zeros in the appropriate lines and certified by a company executive.

Record Review

Before the annual summary is prepared, the recordkeeping rule imposes an express duty to review the log (form 300) to verify that entries are complete and accurate. Employers must review the records as “extensively as necessary” to ensure accuracy and also to ensure that the establishment’s support information found in the OSHA 301 form or first report of injury documents are fully filled out.

During inspections, OSHA inspectors normally scrutinize the forms 301, 300 and 300A for even minor errors in descriptions and boxes checked. Therefore, every employer should take time to review the forms for technical or clerical errors as well as to review accident reports, first aid logs, and other related materials to ensure that all recordable incidents have been included and that records are consistent. Under the recordkeeping standard, covered employers have a duty to update and maintain records for five years plus the current year and provide them upon request for inspection by OSHA investigators.

Covered Employers

Because of the confusion on which employers are partially exempt as a result of the 2015 changes, all employers should review the updated industry exemption list to see if they are covered. Under the revised standard, 25 industries that were previously exempt are now on the hook, and they must maintain the OSHA 300 logs and other required documentations.

Increase in OSHA Penalties

Included in the 2016 budget was a provision to allow OSHA to increase its penalty amounts based on the consumer price index. As a result, it is likely that OSHA penalty amounts will soon increase by 82 percent. These penalty increases make it even more important for employers to ensure that they are fully compliant with the recordkeeping requirements.

Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., is a partner and co-chair of the Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group at Fisher & Phillips LLP, a leading national labor and employment law firm. Before joining Fisher & Phillips, he was Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. Named by President George W. Bush to head OSHA, he served from 2006-2008, when rates of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities dropped to their lowest level in recorded history.