Author Archives: Rory McKinnon

2023 OSHA 300A Posting and Reporting

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Welcome to 2023! It’s time again to prepare, certify and post your OSHA 300A Annual Summary of workplace injuries and illnesses in your workplace? It’s required for all U.S. employers, except those with ten or fewer employees or those whose NAICS code is in the set of low-hazard industries that are exempt from OSHA’s injury and illness recordkeeping requirements. If employers in State Plan states (e.g. Washington) have questions about their obligation to submit injury and illness information, please contact your State Plan office.

Your workplace Annual Summary must be posted from February 1st to April 30th. Electronic reporting is also due by March 2nd for employers with 20 or more employees.

For the PDF versions of the OSHA 300 forms series, click here or for more information on OSHA 300 reporting click here.

Update to OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program

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On September 15, 2022, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced updates to the Severe Violator Enforcement Program (SVEP) that will expand the criteria for being placed in the program.  Along with expanding the criteria, OSHA also outlined new information on follow-up inspections and conditions for being removed from the program.  The SVEP was developed to focus enforcement efforts on those employers that willfully violated certain safety and health standards, repeatedly violated standards, or refused to correct violations.  The update will broaden the scope of the program standards that would be included.

According to OSHA, the following criteria updates will be included:

Getting into the program:

  • Employers will be placed in the program for citations of at least two willful or repeated violations or who receive failure-to-abate notices based on the presence of high-gravity serious violations.

Follow-up while in the program:

  • After notice of the final order, follow-up or referral inspections will be made yearly – but not longer than two years.

Getting out of the program:

  • Employers have the potential of removal from the Severe Violator Enforcement Program three years after the date of receiving verification from the employer that all program-related hazards have been abated.
    • Employers’ have the ability to reduce time spent in the program to two years, if they consent to an enhanced settlement agreement that includes use of a safety and health management system with seven basic elements in OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs.

For more information regarding the update, click here.

New Extreme Heat Resources Launched

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Extreme heat kills over 700 people annually and has been the greatest weather-related cause of death in the United States over the last 30 years according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). On July 26, 2022, the current federal administration launched a new website to aid employers and decision makers in assessing the health risks of extreme heat. Heat.gov was launched through the interagency National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) and it provides a one-stop resource for national heat and health data.

Heat.gov provides decision makers with valuable tools to make decisions based on real-time and forecasted data. The website provides information on Climate and Health outlooks, Vulnerability mapping, National Risk Indexes, and many more. There is also a Heat Safety Tool app provided by OSHA and NIOSH to aid in outdoor activity planning. For more information regarding the app, click here.