OSHA Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report: one form for each recordable work injury or illness, with the details of what happened. It must be completed within 7 calendar days and kept for 5 years.
| Section | Examples of what goes in it |
|---|---|
| About the employee | Name, address, date of birth, date hired |
| About the health care professional | Who treated them, where, emergency room or overnight stay |
| About the case | Date and time, what the employee was doing, what happened, the injury, the object or substance |
| Who completed it | Name, title, phone, date |
Write the case section in plain detail: “slicing onions with a chef’s knife when the blade slipped” is useful; “cut hand” is not. Good detail is what lets you prevent the next one. For deadlines that apply to every employer, see OSHA.
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A prep cook at a 60-employee restaurant group cuts her hand while slicing onions on a Monday at 10 a.m. She gets six stitches at an urgent care clinic and returns the next day with restrictions on knife work for a week. Stitches are medical treatment beyond first aid, so the case is recordable.
The kitchen manager reports it the same day. The safety lead completes the 301 on Wednesday, well inside seven calendar days, and enters the case on the 300 log. The case section notes the knife was dull and the cutting board was sliding on the steel counter.
The fix comes straight from the form: knife sharpening every week and damp towels under cutting boards. When the cook asks for a copy of her 301 the following week, HR gives it to her the next day. The form is filed with the year’s records for five years.
Each recordable case has one line on the OSHA 300 log and one Form 301 with the detail. At the end of the year, the employer totals the log on Form 300A, the annual summary. The summary, not the 301, is posted in the workplace from February 1 to April 30 of the following year, and a company executive certifies it. The 301 itself stays in the file because it contains personal and medical details.
Some establishments with 100 or more employees in certain designated industries must also submit information from their 300 and 301 forms to OSHA electronically each year. Check OSHA’s injury tracking rules to see whether yours is one of them.
A cook at the same restaurant group nicks a finger. The manager cleans it and closes it with a butterfly bandage, and the cook finishes the shift.
Wound closing devices such as butterfly bandages are first aid under the OSHA recordkeeping rule, so the case is not recordable and no 301 is required. The manager still writes a short internal incident note and checks the knife and the cutting board, because two minor cuts on the same station in a month are worth a look before the third one needs stitches.
To record the details of each recordable work-related injury or illness, alongside the one-line entry on the 300 log.
Within seven calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness occurred.
Yes, if it contains the same information, is as readable and understandable, and is completed using the same instructions.
For five years after the end of the calendar year the record covers.
No. Cases that need only first aid, such as a butterfly bandage, are not recordable, so no 301 is required. An internal incident note is still useful.
No. The Form 300A annual summary is posted from February 1 to April 30. The 301 is kept in the records because it includes personal and medical details.
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