OSHA Proposal: Searchable Website with Case Specific Information

Bottom Line: NPGA advocates to protect misrepresentation of workplace injuries and illnesses on public website.

NPGA responded to a proposal by the Occupational Health & Safety Administration (OSHA) that would change workplace injury and illness reporting requirements for the propane industry, among other industries. OSHA proposed to expand Section 1904.41(a) to more industries with a minimum of 100 employees or more, and the creation of a publicly accessible, searchable website sharing case-specific, company-specific injury and illness information. Section 1904.41(a) would require annual electronic submission of Form 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (employee information, date and location of injury or illness, and outcome), Form 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report (additional details about each case recorded on the Form 300 including treatment, how the incident occurred, etc.), and Form 300A Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (employers required to post at workplace, and electronically submit to OSHA under company name).

NPGA argued that the additional data collection is merely to enable OSHA to publish more details about workplace injuries and illnesses for more companies on the proposed public website. We condemned the public website as an unprofessional shaming tactic to instigate improvement in workplace safety. In the proposal, OSHA acknowledged that the agency does not have the resources to investigate all injury and illness information it is proposing to collect, but it intends for the public website to cause a change by influencing public opinion and investors’ decision-making. We challenged this tactic as ineffective, outside the bounds of the agency’s general authority to issue rulemakings to improve safety, and raised past rulemakings that were successfully litigated against OSHA.

NPGA also requested that the agency address any possible connection to the failed vaccination or testing mandate that NPGA successfully litigated earlier this year. In this proposal, OSHA presents changing the employee threshold to 100 or more employees, which deviates from past threshold numbers but correlates with the employee threshold used in the vaccination or testing mandate emergency temporary standard.

Questions? Contact NPGA Vice President, Regulatory & Industry Affairs, Sarah Reboli.