MSDSonline Reminds Employers to Post OSHA Injury & Illness Form 300A by February 1 Deadline

CHICAGO, Jan. 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MSDSonline, the leader in cloud-based environmental, health and safety solutions, issued a reminder today that OSHA requires covered employers to post a summary of 2014 job-related injuries and illnesses. The summary, known as OSHA Form 300A, must remain posted between February 1 and April 30 2015 in a location that is clearly visible to employees and new applicants.

Additionally, businesses are reminded that OSHA has instituted new injury and illness reporting rules that affect all employers in the United States, even if those employers are exempt from routine OSHA Recordkeeping requirements. Under the new rules, that went into effect on January 1, 2015, employers must report to OSHA all work-related fatalities within eight hours, and all inpatient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye within 24 hours.

"January is a critical month for employers looking to stay in compliance with the OSHA Recordkeeping Standard," said Melissa McCaffrey, editor of MSDSonline's Safety Counts Newsletter. "By February 1, 2015, safety professionals must ensure that all of the incidents from the previous year have been captured on OSHA Forms 300 and 301, and then summarized on Form 300A. It can be a challenge for companies with a lot of employees, high incident rates, or those that are still using paper-based systems to manually record workplace injuries and illnesses."

Another important change to OSHA's Recordkeeping Standard (also known as 29 CFR 1904) that went into effect January 1, 2015, is an update to the list of partially exempt industries to the rule. Prior to 2015, the exemption list was based on the old Standard industrial Classification (SIC) system; going forward the list is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Retained in the switch is the exemption for any employer with ten or fewer employees.

McCaffrey said, "States covered by an OSHA State Plan may have a delayed adoption/effective date for the new reporting rules; however, even most state plans have slated the changes for early 2015. Moreover, the February 1, Form 300A posting deadline is independent of the new federal and state-level severe injury and illness reporting deadlines."

To learn more about changes to OSHA's Recordkeeping Standard, sign up for a webinar at www.msdsonline.com/resources/webinars. To learn how electronic incident management solutions can minimize the time-consuming process of OSHA Recordkeeping, case management, and corrective actions tracking, visit www.msdsonline.com/osha-recordkeeping or call toll-free 1-888-362-2007 from the United States and Canada.

About MSDSonline

Founded in 1996 and based in Chicago, MSDSonline is a leading provider of cloud-based EH&S compliance solutions, offering products and services for managing safety data sheets, reporting workplace incidents, training employees and administering other critical EH&S information. The company's mission is to provide sustainable solutions that help customers improve employee safety, streamline compliance recordkeeping and reduce potential exposures to workplace hazards and risks. MSDSonline has been recognized for six years on Inc. magazine's list of America's 5,000 fastest-growing private companies. More information is available online at www.MSDSonline.com and on the official company blog at www.MSDSonline.com/blog. MSDSonline is an Actua (ACTA) company.

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