1. First Revision to Part 1904 Severe Injury Reporting Effective January 1, 2015
Eric Christensen, M.S.
Safety & Occupational Health Specialist
San Diego Area Office

2. Severe Injury Reporting Program
As of January 1, 2015:
All employers are required to notify OSHA when an employee is killed on the job or suffers a work-related hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye.
A fatality must be reported within 8 hours.
An in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss must be reported within 24 hours.

3. Employers do not have to report a case that:
Is not work related
Resulted from a motor vehicle accident on a public street except in a construction work zone
Occurred on a commercial or public transportation system
Is a death that occurred more than 30 days after the incident
Is a hospitalization/amputation/loss of an eye that occurred 24 hours after the incident

4. How can employers report to OSHA?
By telephone to the nearest OSHA office during normal business hours.
San Diego Area FEDERAL OSHA (619)
Oakland Area FEDERAL OSHA
(510)
By telephone to the 24-hour OSHA hotline ( OSHA).
Online:

5. Should we inspect this place?

6. Inspection or RRI?
Inspection – same old, run of the mill, no advanced notice inspection
Rapid Response Investigation (RRI) – looks like OSHA’s nonformal complaint investigations
OSHA sends the employer a letter explaining they have five days to respond
Optional investigation form
OSHA decides if the response is satisfactory; OSHA reserves the right to open an inspection

7. Employer calls in case & OSHA decides: Inspection or RRI?
Category One
All fatalities
Reports of 2 or more hospitalizations
Worker is under 18 years of age
Repeat offenders (significant OSHA history, SVEP, whistleblower cases)
Emphasis program hazard
Any imminent danger
INSPECTION !!

8. Employer calls in case & OSHA decides: Inspection or RRI?
Category Two
Does not involve Category One incidents
Area Director has discretion whether to inspect
Has abatement begun, does it sound satisfactory?
Are there other employees still exposed?
Was the incident the result of a safety program failure? For instance, LOTO, PRCS or PSM?
Is the case related to a potentially catastrophic hazard (dust, explosives, falls, air contaminants)
Are vulnerable workers involved?
Inspection? -- maybe

9. Employer calls in case & OSHA decides: Inspection or RRI?
Category Three
Does not involve Category One or Two incidents
RRI- most likely!

10. 2nd Revision to Part 1904 Electronic Reporting Effective January 1, 2017

11. Electronic Reporting – WHY?
Helps keep workers safer.
Makes employers, the public, and government better informed about workplace hazards.
Encourages employers to increase their efforts to prevent worker injuries, illnesses, and focus on workplace safety.
Allocates OSHA compliance assistance efforts.
Improves workplace safety through access to timely, establishment-specific injury and illness data.
Demonstrates to investors, job seekers, customers, and public that their workplace is a safe and healthy environment.
Provides public health researchers with opportunity to advance fields of injury and illness causation and prevention.

12. Electronic Reporting – WHO?
250 or more employees at any time in the previous CY.
20 to 249 employees at any time in the previous CY… if your establishment is classified in Appendix A to Subpart E
Or – upon notification from OSHA (by mail)

13. Electronic Reporting 1904.41(a)(2) covered Industries
Ag., forestry and fishing (NAICS 11)
Utilities (NAICS 22)
Construction (NAICS 23)
Manufacturing (NAICS 31-33)
Wholesale Trade (NAICS 42)
And more… See Appendix A to Subpart E of Part 1904.

14. Electronic Reporting *First Report of Injury is equivalent to the 301
Submission year
Establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping rule
Establishments with employees in select industries
Submission deadline
2017
CY A Form  
CY A Form
July 1, 2017
2018
CY A, 300, 301* Forms
CY A Form
July 1, 2018
2019 & beyond
300A, 300, 301* Forms
300A Form
March 2 of every year
*First Report of Injury is equivalent to the 301

15. The website for submitting 1904 records electronically is located here, Employers will be able to submit records to this site starting in February 2017.

16. 3rd Revision to Part 1904 Anti-Retaliation Effective December 2, 2016

17. 1904.35(b)(1)(i): Reporting Procedures Must Be Reasonable
An employer's procedure for reporting work-related injuries and illnesses must be reasonable
Applies to the means of reporting injuries and illnesses such as when/where/how to report
A procedure is not reasonable if it would deter or discourage an employee from accurately reporting a workplace injury or illness 17

18. Anti-Retaliation Provisions
(Employee Involvement) makes it a violation for an employer to discourage employee reporting of injuries and illnesses.
Employers must inform employees of their right to report work-related injuries and illnesses free from retaliation. This obligation may be met by posting the OSHA “It’s The Law” worker rights poster v. April 2015 or later.

19. This is the OSHA Notice, version April 2015
Available in ten different languages
Free from the OSHA web site:

20. 1904.35(b)(1)(iv): Prohibition on Retaliation
An employer may not retaliate against employees for reporting work- related injuries or illnesses

21. Adverse Action
Adverse action is action taken by the employer that would discourage a reasonable employee from reporting a work-related illness or injury accurately
Could include denying a benefit under an incentive program, drug testing, or discipline
Examples of adverse actions include: Discharge, demotion, or denying a bonus or other significant benefit

22. Disciplinary, Incentive & Drug Testing Programs
This rule does not ban disciplinary, incentive or drug testing programs all together.
However, it does prohibit use of these programs to retaliate against employees for reporting and injury or illness.
Blanket post-injury drug testing policies deter reporting.
If an injury/illness is very unlikely to have been caused by employee drug use, or if the method of drug testing does not identify impairment but only use at some time in the recent past, requiring the employee to be drug tested may inappropriately deter reporting.
i.e. Drug test mandated for employee who reports a bee sting.

23. Drug-Testing Programs
The rule does not prohibit drug testing of employees pursuant to regulations of the Department of Transportation or any other federal or state government agency.
Employers may conduct post-incident drug testing in accordance with a Workers Compensation Drug-Free Workplace policy.
Random drug testing and pre-employment drug testing are not subject to (b)(iv).
Employers may conduct post-incident testing if there is a reasonable possibility that employee drug use could have contributed to the reported injury or illness.

24. What can employers do?
Develop and implement an effective anti- retaliation program:
Management leadership, commitment, and accountability
System for listening to and resolving employees’ safety and compliance concerns
System for receiving and responding to reports of retaliation
Anti-retaliation training for employees and managers
Program oversight

25. What can employers do?
Discipline They can create legitimate work rules and enforce them “Maintain Situational Awareness” “Work safely”

26. What can employers do? Incentive Programs
They can base rewards on leading indicators instead of injury and illness rates.
They should encourage safety in the workplace.
Violation of 1904(b)(1)(iv)
Prize Drawings for employees not injured.
Low-injury rate incentive programs discourage reporting because the injured employee will not receive a prize and possible co-workers may not receive a reward if the team received an injury.
Encouraging incentive programs include promoting participation in investigations, injuries, incidents, VPP, etc.
Offering modest rewards (i.e. T-shirts to safety and health committee members, throwing a recognition party for successful completion of S&H training).

27. Retaliation – Yes or No?
John is injured when he is stung by a bee at work and he reports the injury to his employer. His employer disciplines John for violating a work rule requiring employees to maintain situational awareness. The employer only enforces this rule when employees get hurt.

28. Retaliation – Yes or No?
Kim reports a hand injury that she sustained while operating a saw after bypassing the guard on the saw, contrary to the employer’s work rule, and reported the injury to her employer. The employer disciplined Kim for bypassing the guard contrary to its instructions. The employer regularly monitors its workforce for safety violations and disciplines employees who bypass machine guards regardless of whether they report injuries.

29. Retaliation – Yes or No?
The employer promises a drawing for a substantial cash prize for each month that each work group in the company is injury-free (regardless of the circumstances of the injury). Malcolm sustains an injury when operating a press, consistent with the employer’s work rules, and reports the injury. The employer cancels the cash prize drawing for Malcolm’s work group because of his injury report.

30. Retaliation – Yes or No?
The employer offers a substantial cash prize drawing for universal compliance with applicable work rules, such as using fall protection and wearing hard hats. Regina gets injured when she falls from a platform while not wearing the required fall protection. The employer cancels the cash prize drawing for Regina’s work group because she failed to use her fall protection.

31. Retaliation – Yes or No?
The employer drug tested Shawn after he reported carpal tunnel syndrome.  

32. Retaliation – Yes or No?
Albert was injured when he inadvertently drove a forklift into a piece of stationary equipment and he reported it to his employer. The employer required Albert to take a drug test.

33. Additional Resources Cal/OSHA Consultation Services Branch
On-site visits
Offsite consultation (Telephone Support)
Educational Materials (Publications and eTools)
Educational Outreach
Partnership Programs
Cal/OSHA is the OSHA consultation group. They have health and safety consultants who can come onsite to small to medium businesses (under 250 ees) and perform OSHA type inspections. But no enforcement activities. You need to correct hazards they find.

34. Additional Resources
Final Rule Text

35. Most frequently cited OSHA standards during FY 2016 inspections
We Can Help
Top Ten
Violations
Most frequently cited OSHA standards during FY inspections
1. Fall Protection
2. Hazard Communication
3. Scaffolding
4. Respiratory Protection
5. Lockout/Tagout
6. Powered Industrial Trucks
7. Ladders
8. Machine Guarding
9. Electrical – Wiring Methods
10. Electrical – General Requirements
This is a list of the top 10 most frequently cited standards following inspections of worksites by federal OSHA. OSHA publishes this list to alert employers about these commonly cited standards so they can take steps to find and fix recognized hazards addressed in these and other standards before OSHA shows up.
The following slides show the top 5 sub-sections that OSHA cites for each of these standards.

36. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
1) Fall Protection
(b)(13) (3,909 violations) – fall protection in residential construction
(b)(1) (1,278 violations) – unprotected sides and edges
(b)(10) (624 violations) – roofing work on low-slope roofs
(b)(11) (522 violations) – steep roofs
(b)(4)(i) (154 violations) – protection from falling through holes, including skylights

37. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
2) Hazard Communication
(e)(1) (1,832 violations) – written hazard communication program
(h)(1) (1,446 violations) – employee information and training
(g)(8) (464 violations) – maintaining copies of Safety Data Sheets in the workplace and ensuring that they are readily available to employees
(g)(1) (386 violations) – having Safety Data Sheets in the workplace for each hazardous chemical
(h)(3)(iv) (335 violations) – training on details of employer’s hazard communication program

38. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
3) Scaffolding
(g)(1) (614 violations) – fall protection
(e)(1) (507 violations) – providing access
(b)(1) (464 violations) – platform construction
(g)(1)(vii) (324 violations) – use of personal fall arrest or guardrail systems
(g)(4)(i) (203 violations) – installation of guardrail systems

39. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
4) – Respiratory Protection
(e)(1) (614 violations) – medical evaluation to determine employee’s ability to use a respirator
(c)(1) (499 violations) – written respiratory protection program
(f)(2) (341 violations) – fit testing for employees using a tight-fitting facepiece respirator: testing frequency
(c)(2)(i) (240 violations) – providing respirators at request of employees or permitting employees to use their own respirators
(d)(1)(iii) (235 violations) – respirator selection: evaluation of respiratory hazards in workplace

40. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
5) – Lockout/Tagout
(c)(4)(i) (644 violations) – developing, documenting, and utilizing energy control procedures
(c)(1) (440 violations) – establishing an energy control program
(c)(6)(i) (374 violations) – periodic inspection of energy control procedure at least annually
(c)(7)(i) (289 violations) – training on the energy control program
(c)(7)(i)(A) (196 violations) – training on the energy control program: recognition of hazardous energy sources and other topics

41. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
6) – Powered Industrial Trucks
(l)(1)(i) (617 violations) – operator training: ensuring that operators are competent to safely operate a powered industrial vehicle as demonstrated by completion of training and evaluation
(l)(4)(iii) (298 violations) – refresher training and evaluation: evaluation of operator’s performance must be conducted at least once every three years
(l)(6) (288 violations) – certification of operator training and evaluation
(p)(1) (255 violations) – taking powered industrial trucks out of service when in need of repair, defective, or unsafe
(q)(7) (185 violations) – examining powered industrial trucks daily or after each shift before placing them in service

42. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
7) Ladders
(b)(1) (1,457 violations) – extending portable ladder side rails at least 3 feet above upper landing surface
(b)(4) (354 violations) – using ladders only for purpose for which they were designed
(b)(13) (235 violations) – not using the top or top step of a stepladder as a step
(b)(16) (127 violations) – marking or tagging portable ladders with structural defects and removing them from service
(b)(22) (75 violations) – not carrying objects/loads that could cause employee to lose balance and fall

43. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
8) – Machine Guarding
(a)(1) (1,486 violations) – providing one or more methods of machine guarding
(a)(3)(ii) (615 violations) – point of operation guarding
(b) (156 violations) – anchoring fixed machinery
(a)(2) (68 violations) – affixing guards to the machine
(a)(5) (49 violations) – guarding fan blades

44. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
9) – Electrical, Wiring Methods
(g)(1)(iv)(A) (338 violations) – not using flexible cords and cables as a substitute for the fixed wiring of a structure
(b)(1)(ii) (314 violations) – closing unused openings in cabinets, boxes, and fittings
(g)(2)(iii) (301 violations) – connecting flexible cords and cables to devices and fittings so that strain relief is provided that will prevent pull from being directly transmitted to joints or terminal screws
(b)(2)(i) (250 violations) – providing pull boxes, junction boxes, and fittings with covers identified for the purpose
(b)(1)(i) (76 violations) – protecting conductors entering cutout boxes, cabinets, or fittings from abrasion

45. (with top 5 sections cited)
We Can Help
Top Ten Violations: FY 2016
(with top 5 sections cited)
10) – Electrical, General
(b)(2) (443 violations) – installing and using listed or labeled equipment in accordance with instructions included in the listing or labeling
(g)(2)(i) (167 violations) – guarding live parts (600 volts, nominal, or less to ground)
(g)(1)(ii) (167 violations) – no use of working space for storage, and guarding working space
(g)(1) (163 violations) – sufficient access and working space about electrical equipment (600 volts, nominal, or less to ground)
(f)(2) (149 violations) – marking service, feeder, and branch circuits at their disconnecting means or overcurrent device

46. Top Ten Violations in Construction FY 2016
Fall Protection, Duty to Have ( )
Scaffolding ( )
Ladders ( )
Fall Protection, Training ( )
Eye and Face Protection ( )
Hazard Communication ( )
Head Protection ( )
General Safety and Health Provisions ( )
Aerial Lifts ( )
Fall Protection, Systems Criteria and Practices ( )
This is a list of the top 10 most frequently cited OSHA standards during inspections of construction worksites in FY 2016.