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This material is for training purposes only. Its purpose is to inform employers and employees of best practices in occupational safety and health and general OSHA compliance requirements. This material is not a substitute for any provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act or any standards issued by OSHA.
MODULE 6: MAINTAINING FORMS (CONTINUED)

In this module, we'll continue on with an overview of the requirements related to retaining forms, involving employees, access to forms, and safeguards against discrimination.

(18) Paperwork Retention and Updating. How long must I keep records?

You must save the OSHA 300 Log, the privacy case list (if one exists), the annual summary, and the OSHA Form 301 for five years following the end of the calendar year that these records cover.

The five-year time period enables employers, employees, and researchers to obtain sufficient data to discover patterns and trends of illnesses and injuries and, in many cases, to demonstrate the statistical significance of such data.

Updating during storage. Employers must update their OSHA 300 Logs under two circumstances.

  1. If the employer discovers a recordable injury or illness that has not previously been recorded, the case must be entered on the forms.


  2. If a previously recorded injury or illness turns out, based on later information, not to have been recorded properly, the employer must modify the previous entry.

    For example, if the description or outcome of a case changes (a case requiring medical treatment becomes worse and the employee must take days off work to recuperate), the employer must remove or line out the original entry and enter the new information.
The intent of this rule is to ensure Log updates are made on a continuing basis, i.e., as new information is discovered during the retention period, it should be recorded within 7 calendar days of discovery, the same interval required for the recording of any new case. If new information about an existing case is discovered, it should be entered within 7 days of receiving the new information.

Maintaining old forms. You must save your copies of the OSHA 200 and 101 forms for five years following the year to which they relate and continue to provide access to the data as though these forms were the OSHA 300 and 301 forms. You are not required to update your old 200 and 101 forms.

(19) Change of Business Ownership.

What must I do if I the business changes ownership?

If your business changes ownership, you are responsible for recording and reporting work-related injuries and illnesses only for that period of the year during which you owned the establishment. You must transfer the records to the new owner. The new owner must save all records of the establishment kept by the prior owner, but need not update or correct the records of the prior owner.

The phrase “change of ownership,” for the purposes of this section, is relevant only to the transfer of the responsibility to make and retain OSHA-required injury and illness records. In other words, if one employer transfers ownership of an establishment to a different employer, the new entity becomes responsible for retaining the previous employer’s past OSHA-required records and for creating all new records required by this rule. The new owner is not required to update or correct the records of the prior owner, even if new information about old cases becomes available.

(20) Employee Involvement.

Who must be informed and have access to the records?

You must involve your employees and their representatives in the recordkeeping system.
  • Inform each employee of how they are to report an injury or illness to you.


  • Provide limited access to your injury and illness records for your employees and their representatives. Your employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized collective bargaining representatives have the right to access the OSHA injury and illness records, with some limitations, as below. A personal representative is anybody designated in writing by the employee or former employee. It also is the legal representative of a deceased or legally incapacitated employee.


  • When an employee, former employee, personal representative, or authorized employee representative asks for copies of your current or stored OSHA 300 Log(s) for an establishment the employee or former employee has worked in, you must give the requester a copy of the relevant OSHA 300 Log(s) by the end of the next business day. You must leave the names on the 300 Log. However, to protect the privacy of injured and ill employees, do not record the employee’s name on the OSHA 300 Log for certain privacy concern cases.


  • When an employee, former employee, or personal representative asks for a copy of the OSHA Form 301 or equivalent describing an injury or illness to that employee or former employee, you must give the requester a copy of the OSHA Form 301 or equivalent containing that information by the end of the next business day.


  • When an authorized employee representative asks for copies of the OSHA Form 301 or equivalent for an establishment where the agent represents employees under a collective bargaining agreement, you must give copies of those forms to the authorized employee representative within 7 calendar days.

    You are only required to give the authorized employee representative information from the releasable part of the OSHA Form 301 or equivalent section titled “Tell us about the case” or a similar section. You must remove all other information from the copy of the OSHA Form 301 or equivalent form that you give to the authorized employee representative.


  • You may not charge for these copies the first time. However, if one of the designated persons asks for additional copies, you may assess a reasonable charge for retrieving and copying the records.
(21) Reporting Fatalities and Hospitalizations to OSHA.

What are the requirements for reporting fatalities and hospitalizations?

You must report the following to OSHA within the given time limits:
  • Fatalities 8 hours after occurrence or employer knowledge. Report a fatality only if it occurs within 30 days of the accident.


  • Catastrophe (three or more hospitalizations) 8 hours after occurrence or employer knowledge. NOTE: You must report a fatality caused by a heart attack at work. The local OSHA field office safety or health manager will decide whether to investigate the incident, depending on the circumstances of the heart attack.


  • Overnight Hospitalization 24 hours after occurrence or employer knowledge. Overnight hospitalization if for medical treatment only. Hospitalization for observation is not reportable, nor is emergency room treatment.
NOTE: Do not report injuries (including fatalities) resulting from motor vehicle accidents that happen on public streets, roads or highways unless it is in a construction work zone

(22) Providing Records to Government Representatives.

Do I have to provide records to government representatives?

When an authorized government representative asks for the records you keep in compliance with this standard, you must provide copies of the records within 4 business hours. Authorized government representatives are:
  • a representative of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
  • a representative of the Secretary of Labor conducting an inspection or investigation under the Act.
  • a representative of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (including the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health - NIOSH) conducting an investigation under Section 20(b) of the Act.
(23) Requests from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or DCBS.

What if I receive a survey from the Bureau of Labor Statistics?

If you receive a Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Form from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), or a BLS designee, you must promptly complete the form and return it following the instructions on the survey form.

(24) Prohibition against discrimination.

What are employee safeguards again discrimination?

29 CFR 1977, Discrimination against Employees under OSHA Act of 1970, prohibits discrimination against an employee for reporting a work-related fatality, injury or illness. It also protects the employee who files a safety and health complaint, asks for access to this rule, records, or otherwise exercises any rights afforded by law or rule.



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