11/4/2009

Often, injury and illness recordkeeping starts out strong in January, but as the year progresses, things can fall off track. With the end of the year fast approaching, now is a good time to check how well you're doing with recordkeeping.

On October 1, OSHA initiated a national emphasis program (NEP) on safety recordkeeping designed to enforce regulatory requirements. Join us on Dec. 2 for an in-depth 90-minute webinar designed to help you track and record injuries and illnesses in compliance with the Cal/OSHA recordkeeping standard.

• Have all cases been classified in the proper amount of time? You have seven calendar days from an event that results in an injury or illness, or from the time you receive information about a work-related illness not connected to any specific event, to determine whether it's recordable and enter it on your Form 300. Review your Form 300 and your injury reports to ensure that there are no outstanding cases that have not been classified and logged in the Form 300. If you have cases that were not properly recorded, evaluate why this occurred and institute action to correct the problem.


• Have all recorded injuries and illnesses had a detailed incident report completed? There should be a detailed incident report for each injury or illness on your Form 300. You have the choice as to whether you use the OSHA Form 301 or an internal report, a workers' compensation report, or other reports—as long as these capture all of the information that the OSHA Form 301 captures.


• You were exempt this year; will you be next year? If you had 10 or fewer employees at all times during this calendar year, then you will be exempt in 2010 from Cal/OSHA's recordkeeping requirements. Conversely, if at any point during 2009 you had more than 10 employees (which includes all employees in your organization, including temporary employees you supervised on a day-to-day basis), you are not exempt under the small-employer provision in 2010. If you're on the 10-employee borderline, be sure you're tracking your counts correctly—especially if your employee numbers have fluctuated at all.


• Do you have information to complete Form 300A Annual Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses? In order to complete Form 300A, not only will you need the information on Form 300, but you will also need to compute total hours worked—including those from temporary workers you supervised on a day-to-day basis. If you have utilized temporary workers from another organization, ensure that you have determined the nature of the temporary arrangement (were they supervised by your organization or by the supplying organization?) and whether you will need to include the temporary workers' hours on your Form 300A. Remember that the hours supplied by your payroll department likely will not include these types of temporary employees since the agency or organization that supplied the workers will be the one that paid the workers.

On October 1, OSHA initiated a national emphasis program (NEP) on safety recordkeeping designed to enforce regulatory requirements—they're looking for employers who are underreporting injuries and illnesses. They've got their fine-toothed combs out, and now is not a good time for you to be unprepared.

In addition to helping you avoid costly citations, smart recordkeeping practices can also help you make injury-reducing and profit-boosting improvements by allowing you to learn from past mistakes.

Join us on Dec. 2 for an in-depth 90-minute webinar designed to help you track and record injuries and illnesses in compliance with the Cal/OSHA recordkeeping standard. Bring your managers along as we walk you through the key elements of an effective recordkeeping program. You'll learn:

• How to decipher the Cal/OSHA recordkeeping standard, and what you need to do to be in compliance


• Which forms to use, and how to complete them properly


• How to maintain employees' privacy when reporting an incident


• Which incidents must be reported—and by when—and which merely need to be recorded


• How to perform a recordkeeping audit and assess the working environment


• How to differentiate between medical treatment and first aid, and why the distinction matters


• The proper use of the three often-confused forms: Cal/OSHA Log Form 300, Cal/OSHA Form 301, and Cal/OSHA Form 300A (annual summary)


• Which cases require restricted work activity or days away from work, and how to record the number of days


• Some of the frequently misunderstood terms in recordkeeping

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