AccessPoint Risk Dept. has been asked about any updates on the new OSHA Electronic Recordkeeping Rule requirement which was to be in place by February 2017 via an electronic portal system. This electronic portal was designed to allow companies required to submit their Recordkeeping by July 1, 2017 to do so; therefore complying to the new law.
Current Status?
As of April 2017, OSHA has still not created a portal that will accept electronic submissions per this rule. This may be due in part to legal wrangling’s going on behind the scenes. Recently, on April 11, a federal judge announced that he won’t rule on a case challenging the federal government’s new electronic recordkeeping rule until after July 1, 2017 – the deadline for employers(those required) to submit recordkeeping information electronically.
The move means that companies will have to comply with the order and meet its first-year deadline while they wait to learn the ultimate fate of the rule.
Last year the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) challenge the Department of Labor on the rule arguing that it put employers under an unfair burden, in terms of both paperwork and privacy.
As many already know, this new rule requires many employers, 1) ALL those with more than 250 employees, 2) and those with between 20 – 249 employees in “high-risk” industries – to electronically submit workplace injury and illness data to OSHA. The data in question (Summary of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses) was already being kept by many employers, but was not additionally being submitted electronically.
How will electronic submission work?
OSHA is to be providing a secure website that offers three options for Recordkeeping data submission:
- Users will be able to manually enter data into a webform.
- Second, users will be able to upload a CSV file to process single or multiple establishments at the same time.
- Users of automated recordkeeping systems will have the ability to transmit data electronically via an API (application programming interface).
AccessPoint has already identified current client’s that may need to participate (per their NAICS codes) in this electronic submission, and will work with those clients to help them access and report this data as this portal opens up for submission.