Comment period extended for OSHA record-keeping proposal

September 24th, 2015 by Dakota Software Staff Industry News

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's deadline for comment submissions on the proposed rule clarifying employer records obligations was moved to Oct. 28, 2015, giving the public more time to submit comments, according to the National Safety Council.

The proposed record-keeping rules do not add any new obligations for employers, according to Recycling Today. Instead, the update would simply clarify the rules already in place. Those rules state an employer has to enter every employee injury into a log and update those logs as needed. This information is supposed to be kept for five-and-a-half years. 

Previously, it was determined in a U.S. Court of Appeals case that OSHA could not issue citations more than six months after an injury occurs. OSHA argued citations could be issued for the entire time companies are required to keep records. The decision in AKA LLC v. Secretary of Labor spurred OSHA to issue a proposal that would clarify the current rules in effect and allow the administration to issue citations at any moment during the five-and-a-half year time period. 

Whether or not the proposal passes, employers will still have to keep detailed records of any employee injury incidents for five-and-a-half years in order to meet safety compliance as outlined in the regulations. OSHA said in the Federal Register the proposed amendments to its current record-keeping regulations are designed to ensure that employers keep ongoing records for the entire required period of time.

The proposed changes were published in the Federal Register on July 29, 2015. The original deadline for public comments was Sept. 28, 2015. The additional month of comment submission will allow OSHA to be sure that the new regulations are fair and complete.