“What am I supposed to put on the OSHA log that needs posting?”
Your HR Survival Tip
Every year from February 1st through April 30th, each company must post its OSHA log (Form 300A). This is an annual summary of all your work-related injuries and illnesses from the previous year. This log must be easily accessible by all your employees so it needs to be posted in a visible location at every worksite… yes, even in the field.
Cal/OSHA (California’s state-specific Occupational Safety and Health Administration) provides guidelines to make this easier but has also provided COVID-specific guidelines because, yes, you should have been recording all work-related COVID cases. There are actually three OSHA forms you should be using:
- Form 301 is the individual incident record that should be completed whenever you have a work-related injury or illness. Start with this one when an incident happens.
- Form 300 is an easy-to-review list of incidents and is pulled from your Form 301s.
- Form 300A is a summary and count of the types of incidents you’ve had and this is the only one you post.
Not every little paper cut gets recorded on the log but it doesn’t take much to be a recordable incident. Record the incident if it resulted in medical treatment beyond first aid, a need for a day(s) off work, an accommodation of restricted work duty or a transfer to other duties, loss of consciousness, a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a licensed health care professional, or death. You just record a zero on the Form 300A if you had nothing happen that was recordable. However, thanks to COVID, the chances of you having nothing to report are slim to none.
If your remote workers had recordable incidents, you would add those events to the log. So far, Cal/OSHA has not addressed remote workers for posting requirements but we recommend also posting your Form 300A annual summary on a shared drive so remote workers can see it. The digital posting does not eliminate the requirement to post it on your office wall. Most companies with 250 or more employees must also submit your log electronically to Cal/OSHA.
We strongly recommend you review Cal/OSHA’s recordkeeping information available at https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/puborder.asp#RK. You will find all the forms and instructions for each one. These aren’t difficult forms and completing the Form 300A summary is much easier if you know how to track the incidents throughout the year.
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