Companies will need to report a broader range of workplace injuries, or any fatalities, to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, under a final rule set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The rule also updates the list of employers partially exempt from OSHA record-keeping requirements.

The final rule follows preliminary results from the 2013 Bureau of Labor Statistics’ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. According to that report, 4,405 workers were killed on the job in 2013.

“We can—and must—do more to keep America’s workers safe and healthy,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said in a statement. “Workplace injuries and fatalities are absolutely preventable, and these new requirements will help OSHA focus its resources and hold employers accountable for preventing them.”

Under the revised rule, employers will be required to notify OSHA of work-related fatalities within eight hours, and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours. Previously, OSHA’s regulations required an employer to report only work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of three or more employees. Reporting single hospitalizations, amputations, or loss of an eye was not required under the previous rule.

All employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act, even those who are exempt from maintaining injury and illness records, are required to comply with OSHA’s new severe injury and illness reporting requirements. To assist employers in fulfilling these requirements, OSHA is developing a Web portal for employers to report incidents electronically, in addition to the phone reporting options.

Exempt Industries

In addition to the new reporting requirements, OSHA also updated the list of industries that, due to relatively low occupational injury and illness rates, are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep injury and illness records. Whereas the previous list of exempt industries was based on the old Standard Industrial Classification system, the new rule uses the North American Industry Classification System to classify establishments by industry.

The new list is based on updated injury and illness data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The new rule maintains the exemption for any employer with ten or fewer employees, regardless of their industry classification, from the requirement to routinely keep records of worker injuries and illnesses.

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