The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) recently issued a proposal that seeks to clarify an employer’s duty to make and maintain records about work-related injuries and illnesses. OSHA proposed this rule in response to a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in AKM, LLC v. Secretary of Labor, 675 F.3d 752 (D.C. Cir. 2012), which found that OSHA could not issue citations for failing to record a work-related injury or illness after six-months of the failure to record.

Specifically, the proposal would require employers to retain accurate records about all incidents for five years, even if they failed initially to record an incident within the required seven-day reporting period. This would allow OSHA to issue a citation for a recordkeeping error up to five years after an error is made, which is much longer than six months statute of limitations for citations included in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.  

Comments on this proposal are due September 28, 2015.

Members with questions may contact Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.