OSHA 101

Looking to refresh your knowledge of OSHA and better understand their standards? Read on to learn the basics of OSHA and how to keep your organization compliant. 

Background

In 1970, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act to set safe working standards for employees in the U.S. From this, the OSHA organization was formed as a part of the Department of Labor. The organization sets standards for employers to create a safe and healthy environment for workers. 

Coverage

OSHA standards mainly apply to companies with 10 or more employees. These standards protect private-sector workers throughout all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several other U.S. territories. While OSHA protects many workers, not all employees are covered. Those not covered by OSHA include: 

• Self-employed workers 
• Immediate family members of farm employers 
• Workplace hazards already regulated by another agency 
• Public sector employees 

Required Reporting

Employers are required to record and report the following incidents to OSHA: 

• Work-related fatalities
• Missed day of work or missed next shift
• Restriction of work
• Work-related medical treatment
• Loss of consciousness
• Occupational illness

Many of these required reports are also time sensitive. Be sure to pay special attention how soon after an incident it must be reported to OSHA. 

Forms

OSHA has three forms: 300, 300a, and 301. Each of these forms have different requirements about the information collected, privacy, and who must submit these forms. 

Form 300:

• Log information for each incident including case number, name of employee, job title, date of incident, incident location, description, body part, object/substance that injured the employee.
• Privacy case exception for name of employee in incidents involving sensitive information.
• Classify the case by death, missed, restricted, or other. Choose the most severe outcome as only one may be selected. 
• Count the number of restricted days and days missed of work. Do not include the day the incident occurred in the count. 
• Select injury type. 
• Different log for every location

Form 300a:

• Only submitted once per year
• Summary of all incidents that occurred throughout the year
• Requirements to submit electronically

Form 301:

• More detailed information about a single case, including:
  • Case number
  • Date of incident
  • Time employee began work
  • Time of incident
  • Employee actions prior to incident
  • What happened
  • Injury or illness
  • Object or substance directly harming employee
  • Date of death (if applicable)

How Kokomo24/7® Can Help

Keeping incident reports OSHA compliant can be a challenging task, but Kokomo 24/7® is here to help. Kokomo’s CASES™ provides employers the ability to track and manage incidents across different work sites in one centralized dashboard. CASES™ allows employers to: 

• See all company incidents and tasks in one location 
• Reduce incident response times 
• Manually or automatically send notifications based on specific incidents or incident timing 
• Comply with OSHA standards 
• Pull reports for further analysis 

Ever since Kokomo24/7® was founded in 2018, we have been a leader in compliance and risk management solutions for all things health and safety. Kokomo proudly serves workplaces, communities, and schools with continuity software solutions including surveys, case management, accreditation and vaccine tracking, guest management, notifications, occupancy management, anonymous reporting, and emergency operations. Our mission is to deliver highly effective, easy-to-use, and trusted compliance and risk management solutions that bridge the gap between public safety and technology. 

Ask us how we can help your organization stay OSHA compliant.