Employers are required to have a workers’ compensation insurance to replace an injured workers’ wages and medical benefits. Additionally, employers are required by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to report an illness or injury that occurs during a workers normal and overtime working hours. OSHA tracks workplace injuries and attempts to improve working conditions for all workers by reducing workplace injuries. OSHA also investigates accidents that happen in the workplace and attempt to figure out what went wrong and why. 

What is OSHA recordable?

A case is considered OSHA recordable if an injury involves medical treatment more serious than first aid or if it receives a diagnosis. The injury or illness must have occurred in a work-related environment during work hours. An employee does not determine if his or her injury is reportable. The employer does. Additionally, the case must be new unless the worker has completely recovered from a previous and the symptoms are directly related to a workplace environment or event. The injury can happen while the employee is on break or lunchtime as long as it happened during their normal business hours. 

Here are some basic recording requirements:

• Employers with more than 10 employees are required to keep a record of serious work-related injuries and illnesses (some low risk industries are excluded).
• The records must be maintained at the worksite for at least five years.
• You submit the records electronically.
• Worker fatalities must be reported within 8 hours and any amputation, loss of an eye, or hospitalization of a worker within 24 hours. 

Recording a Case and Reporting a Claim

Employers are required to keep OSHA records so that the performance of safety programs can be monitored. This has nothing to do with any state workers’ compensation laws. The two systems serve different purposes and are entirely independent of each other. Workers’ compensation programs provide equal benefits to any worker that is injured while on the job. The information from an OSHA log recording and a workers’ compensation claims are used for different purposes. OSHA records intend to ultimately analyze nationwide data on injuries and illnesses that happen in the workplace. A case might be compensable under the workers’ compensation laws but still fail to meet the specific criteria for being an OSHA-recordable case. Just the same that an OSHA-recordable case may fail to meet the criteria necessary for workers’ compensation. See the below decision tree on reporting.

It is important to keep in mind that injuries should be reported to your insurer immediately regardless of how serious it is. For OSHA, only fatalities and severe injuries must be reported right away. All OSHA recordable injuries must be submitted within seven days of occurrence.

Record-keeping can be confusing especially when OSHA requirements and workers’ comp overlap. There are many resources available through OSHA to help simplify things.