OSHA's new electronic reporting rule took effect on January 1, 2017. It requires certain employers to electronically submit injury and illness data which they are required to record on their onsite OSHA injury and illness forms. Under the final rule published in May 2016, employers with 250 or more employees and employers with between 20-249 employees in an industry that OSHA deems to be high risk must electronically submit Form 300As. Employers with 250 or more employees were also required to electronically submit OSHA 300 logs and 301 forms.
After some delay, the electronic portal for submission was made available on OSHA's website in August 2017. The Trump administration pushed back the first compliance date to submit data for CY2016 to December 1, 2017 then to December 15, 2017. OSHA then announced by press release that it would take submissions until December 31, 2017 without taking any enforcement action, even though submissions between December 16 and 31 were technically late.
The requirement to submit OSHA 300 logs and 301 forms was ultimately waived for 2016 and OSHA is not accepting Form 300 and 301 information at this time. OSHA has announced that it will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking to reconsider, revise, or remove provisions of the final rule, including the collection of the Forms 300/301 data.
OSHA is now accepting electronic reports of Form 300As for CY 2017. Forms must be submitted by July 1, 2018. The deadline for electronic submission of Form 300As for CY2018 will be March 2, 2019.
OSHA is no longer accepting electronic submissions of Form 300As for CY2016. The Agency has indicated that approximately one third of the establishments that were required to file their 300As failed to do so for CY2016. Failure to file may result in an other-than-serious citation which carries a maximum penalty of $12,934.
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