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- 27 Feb 2023Zenefits Review
A form published by the occupational and safety health administration, the OSHA form is a record kept by the employer of all major work-related incidences of injuries and illnesses of the employees. OSHA form 301 gives a full description of the injuries sustained at the place of work and is a subdivision of OSHA form 300.
Making and keeping records on OSHA Form 301 is compulsory for all employers. The employers are, however, exempted from recording small injuries that do not significantly affect the employee or interfere with their work.
The form is also exemptable to various companies based on size and industry type. Therefore, a company having less than ten employees is not required to fill out the OSHA 301 form.
According to the OSHA record-keeping regulation, an injury recordable in the form needs to fit in the description of being work-related. Therefore, work relation to injury means an event causes the condition at work or exposure to a work-related environment. The said injury or illness might have been pre-existing but has been aggravated by your work duties.
Therefore, the employer must record injuries and illnesses that may have resulted in unconsciousness, days off work, death, serious medical care, and loss of a part of the body.
The form also prescribes that any illness and injury a licensed medical practitioner has diagnosed must also be recorded. It includes partial deafness, eyesight, and spinal injuries.
There is, however, a different set of rules for some chronic illnesses like tuberculosis and total loss of hearing ability. Any cut to an employee by a sharp object that has caused the previous injury to the same or a different employee, resulting in blood contamination, must also be recorded.
Please check the OSHA official website for updated regulations on the various illnesses and injuries related to the work environment.
The form should contain all relevant information about the injury or illness of the employee. It must be recorded by the employee and not any other individual and must be filled in seven days after the occurrence of the incident at most.
It includes the employee's full name, identification, home address, and the dates the company hired them.
The form should also include the exact injury date and time and the incident's precise location.
In chronological order, you must also include the employee's activity before the incident. The object that resulted in physical injury must also be clearly stated, the body part harmed, the place of treatment after the injury, and the name of the physician who treated the employee.
The privacy case in the OSHA form is used when the employee injury has resulted from sexual harassment, mental disease, or a cut from a blood-contaminated object that may result in serious infections.
The employee's name is exempted if someone has been infected with illnesses such as HIV and tuberculosis, an injury or illness to a private part of the body, or anything that might result in another employee's criticism. It is essential to keep the dignity of the employee in question.
If the severity of the case is determined to be minimal right after documentation, then you need to delete it. It can be done by use of white-out or by drawing a line to the case. The OSHA Form only requires you to record serious cases.
After a record of the incident is made, the employer has to keep the OSHA forms safe and be ready to pull them off once summoned by the OSHA. It means that it is optional to submit the form to OSHA every time an incident occurs. The files must be kept for a minimum of five years before being disposed of.
Keeping a record of the OSHA Form 301 helps the employer have a place of reference when making the workplace more safe and ergonomic, and in case there are differences between the employer and employee on the compensation of the incident, the case can be easier to solve by help of the OSHA form 301.
Upon submission to the OSHA, this form forms an excellent basis for the authorities to conduct their annual occupational injuries and illnesses survey to help employers better protect their employees.
The survey also helps the authorities calculate the incident rate for each company. If you also wish, OSHA will also make relevant suggestional input to make your company a safe place for employees.
A good safety record among your employees will improve your company's image, resulting in better employee productivity.
