OSHA is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that sets and enforces workplace safety rules. For most employers it means three things: keep the workplace free of serious recognized hazards, record injuries, and report the worst ones fast.
| Event or record | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Work-related fatality | Report to OSHA within 8 hours |
| In-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye | Report to OSHA within 24 hours |
| Form 300A annual summary | Post from February 1 to April 30 |
| 300 log, 301 reports, 300A summary | Keep for 5 years after the end of the year they cover |
The 10-employee threshold is counted across the whole company, not each location, and it only affects keeping the logs. The 8-hour and 24-hour reporting rules apply to every employer.
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A distribution company has 48 employees across two warehouses. At 3 p.m. on a Tuesday, a picker’s foot is crushed by a forklift. He is admitted to the hospital overnight.
Because it is an in-patient hospitalization, the company must report it to OSHA within 24 hours, so by 3 p.m. Wednesday. The safety lead files the report that evening, records the case on the 300 log and completes the 301 incident report.
In the review, the company finds the picking aisle was shared with forklift traffic during the afternoon shift. It separates the routes, retrains drivers and logs the training with sign-in sheets. In February, the case appears on the 300A summary posted at both warehouses until April 30.
Beyond the logs and reporting deadlines, OSHA expects employers to find and fix hazards. A simple program for a small business has five parts: a written list of the main hazards in each job, regular safety walks with action items, training on those hazards when people start and when things change, a way to report hazards and near misses without blame, and a review of every injury to fix the cause.
Keep records of each part: walk checklists, training records with dates and names, and how each report was closed. They show the program is real, and they help you notice when the same hazard keeps coming back.
A small manufacturer with 35 employees starts asking for near-miss reports on a simple form. In the first two months, 9 reports come in, 4 of them about the same loading dock edge with no guard.
The company installs a guard and a warning line within a week and posts the fix in the company feed. No injury had happened yet. The reports showed the hazard before it hurt someone, and staff start reporting more because they see a result.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, a federal agency within the US Department of Labor.
Yes. Safety standards and the general duty clause apply, and every employer must report fatalities within 8 hours and serious injuries within 24 hours. Companies with 10 or fewer employees are partially exempt from keeping the injury logs.
Work-related fatalities within 8 hours, and in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24 hours.
The 300 log, 301 reports and 300A summary must be kept for 5 years after the end of the calendar year they cover.
The requirement that each employer provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm, beyond the specific standards.
Many OSHA standards include specific training requirements for the hazards they cover. Check the standards that apply to your work.
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