OSHA releases employer injury, illness data for 2016-2018

Washington — OSHA has released work-related injury and illness data from a three-year period of electronic submissions of Form 300A.

Announced in a Sept. 4 press release, the release of the electronic injury and illness annual summaries from 2016 to 2018 comes after two June court decisions involving Freedom of Information Act cases: Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Department of Labor and Public Citizen Foundation v. U.S. Department of Labor.

In the former case, Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu, from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, ruled that Form 300A data isn’t confidential because, in part, employers are required to post the form in a prominent spot in their workplaces each year. Employers also must give a copy of Form 300A to current and former employees and their personal representatives, at no charge, upon request.

Establishments with 250 or more employees and those with 20 to 249 employees in certain “high-hazard” industries are required to submit Form 300A electronically each year. In an article published Aug. 25 on its news site Reveal, CIR reports that around 40% of the establishments required to submit data in 2016 didn’t do so. That percentage increased to more than 50 in each of the next two years.

Along with calendar year files, OSHA provides a data dictionary on its website.

“The fact that an employer provided data does not mean that the employer is at fault, that the employer has violated any OSHA requirements, that OSHA has found any violations, or that the employee is eligible for workers’ compensation or other benefits,” OSHA says in the release.