OSHA has announced that it will issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that will remove provisions of the "Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses" rule requiring companies with 250 or more workers to electronically submit data from the OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses and OSHA 301 Injury and Illness Incident Report.

The requirement that covered establishments submit data from the 300A Annual Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses would not be affected.

The agency said the change would “better protect personally identifiable information or data that could be re-identified with a particular individual.”

A lawsuit against OSHA

OSHA’s decision in May to not require or accept injury and illness data from employers who were required to electronically submit the data by July 1 is the subject of a lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by three safety and health advocacy groups.

Public Citizen, the American Public Health Association, and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists say the agency violated protocol when it suspended the requirement.

“OSHA did not publish a notice of the suspension of the July 1, 2018, deadline in the Federal Register and did not solicit public comment on it. Instead, OSHA announced the suspension of the deadline for the 2017 data on its website,” the lawsuit states.

About the NPRM

OSHA is making the NPRM available on its website for informational purposes only until the official version is published in the Federal Register. Until the date of publication, the NPRM can be found at osha.gov. After publication, the NPRM can be accessed through the Federal Register website at www.federalregister.gov.