According to an article from Jackson and Lewis’ OSHA Law Blog, OSHA submitted a draft final rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injury and Illnesses to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. OIRA is part of the office of Management and Budget and all federal rules roll through that office at some point before becoming final.

You will recall that a proposed record keeping rule was initially dropped back in the Fall of 2013. At the same time, we saw a proposed reporting rule. The Reporting Rule became final last year and went into full effect in January of 2015. The Record Keeping rule didn’t move but OSHA continued to reiterate it’s commitment to the rule. This movement in the OIRA could very well signal that OSHA is close (maybe by the end of the year) to a new record keeping rule according to the article.

Many groups including many ginner organizations filed comments opposing the record keeping proposal for several reasons. The most disturbing is the proposal would provided for a database that would be public and searchable. Giving every recordable injury and illness record over to whomever wants it seems like a serious invasion of privacy. It also seems like a recipe for vigilantism against a company.

At this point we are still in wait and see mode but since this was a topic discussed at our state meetings last month I wanted to bring you the latest.

DSF