An Employer Must Update Stored Osha 300 Logs To Include And Reflect What?

osha-inspections

As most employers are aware, OSHA inspections typically involve a request for the employer to produce sure documents. In many cases, employers are unsure of what documents the compliance officer is entitled to come across and re-create. Employers can also be unsure of how long to retain certain documents required under OSHA. Some OSHA regulations require a specific memory period for documents. Other OSHA regulations, withal, do not (although it is oft advisable to retain certain documents even if memory is not technically required). This article is intended to give general guidance in these areas.

CATEGORIES OF DOCUMENTS

The following listing sets out the typical OSHA standards and the General Duty Clause that may require an employer to create, retain, and produce certain documents during the course of an inspection, if requested by the OSHA compliance officer. Obviously, whether the employer is required to have certain of these programs or others will exist dependent upon the nature of the work activities at the site. This list is focused on the standards that are applicable to employers in General Industry (29 CFR 1910 et. seq.) and not Construction Industry (29 CFR 1926 et. seq.) although some Full general Manufacture standards are essentially similar and also applicable to the Construction Industry. There are many hazards that are mutual to each manufacture but the regulatory obligations frequently differ. For those employers in the Construction Industries, it will be necessary to reference the existing regulations addressing hazards in that industry when responding to an OSHA document request.

During the inspection, the employer should asking the compliance officer to make the document asking in writing (information technology can be handwritten) then that there is no confusion over what documents are being requested and and then that the employer is not cited for failure to produce a certificate it did not believe was requested by the compliance officer. The employer'due south on-site representative should review this request with management and decide which documents will be produced to the compliance officer. Information technology is of import to remember that the employer has no duty to produce certain documents (e.g., post-accident investigations, insurance audits, consultant reports, employee personnel information) considering no regulation requires such product. It is important to note that any documents produced tin exist utilized to issue citations, thus, the employer should not produce any documents unless required by law.

Control of Hazardous Free energy – Lockout/Tagout (LOTO)

29 CFR 1910.147 – requires the employer to develop procedures to protect employees who service or maintain its machines confronting unexpected energization or startup of equipment or release of stored free energy.

29 CFR 1910.147(c)(seven) – the employer must train its "authorized" employees how perform LOTO with these procedures, as well as "afflicted" employees who may exist exposed to the equipment.

29 CFR 1910.147(f)(2) – requires the on-site employer and outside employer to inform each other of their respective lockout or tagout procedures.

Document retentiveness: The LOTO standard requires employers to certify that periodic inspections accept been performed at to the lowest degree annually. Accordingly, employers should retain certifications for 1 year, or until a new certification is created. It is also appropriate that employers retain employee LOTO training records for the duration of employment.

Occupational Noise Exposure

29 CFR 1910.95 – requires the employer to provide a hearing conservation program (education, annual audiograms, hearing protection) for employees who are exposed to noise levels equal to or exceeding an 8 hour time weighted average (TWA) of 85 decibels on the A scale. The employer must conduct a noise survey to decide those jobs which may require employees to be included in the program. Employees who endure hearing loss at sure frequencies must be included on the OSHA 300 Log. The employer must develop a written programme and administer information technology.

Document retention: Employers must retain noise exposure measurement records for two years. Employers must also retain audiometric test records for the elapsing of the afflicted employee'south employment.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

29 CFR 1910.132 – the employer must conduct an initial certified hazard assessment of the workplace to determine if hazards are present which crave personal protective equipment for eyes, face, head and extremities to protect against injury. The employer must provide each employee with the necessary PPE, railroad train the employee in the use of PPE and enforce its use. The employer must pay for the PPE with express exceptions.

A second certification is required to confirm that the PPE was provided, the employee received grooming in how to utilize it and that the employee "understood" the preparation.

Document memory: Employers should retain the written certifications of a hazard assessment and employee grooming for the elapsing of employment for all employees exposed to identified hazards. It is also appropriate for employers to retain employee PPE preparation records for the duration of employment.

Gamble Communication (Employee Right to Know)

29 CFR 1910.1200 – requires the employer to develop a written hazard communication program to protect employees against whatever hazardous chemic which presents a concrete or health hazard. The employer is required to conduct an assessment to determine which hazardous chemicals may be present, to inform employees of the presence of the chancy chemicals, train employees on how to read a Safe Data Canvass (SDS) for each hazardous chemical.

Employers are entitled to admission to the SDS and to obtain copies.

Document retention: Employers must retain SDSs for the duration of employment plus thirty years for all employees exposed to the chemical in question, unless there is another record of the identity of the substance or chemic, where it was used and when it was used. The employer must also be sure it has a copy of all SDSs for all chemicals that are currently in apply. It is as well appropriate for employers to retain employee hazard advice training records for the elapsing of employment.

Process Safety Management

29 CFR 1910.119 – requires employers who utilize certain toxic, reactive, combustible or explosive chemicals in certain quantities, to develop a written fourteen (14) part PSM program. The PSM programme addresses all aspects of work around the covered "procedure" that utilizes the chemicals.

29 CFR 1910.119(h) – requires training of contractor employees who perform certain work effectually the covered process concerning the hazards and elements of the PSM program.

Document retentivity: Employers must retain process gamble analyses (PHAs) for the life of the covered process. In addition, the employer must prepare a written record that each employee who is involved in the functioning of the procedure was trained and understood the grooming. These verification records should be retained for the length of the employee's employment. We recommend that employers also retain all process safety information (PSI) used for developing, maintaining, auditing, and otherwise managing all processes for the life of the processes. Whatsoever incident investigations conducted under the PSM standard must be retained for five years. Additionally, employers must retain the two most contempo compliance audit reports conducted nether the PSM standard.

Emergency Action Plans

29 CFR 1910.38 – requires the employer to develop an emergency action plan to protect employees confronting the hazards of fires or other emergencies. The EAP must include provisions for reporting a fire or other emergency, evacuation procedures and the warning system. The employer must train each employee. 29 CFR 1910.38(e).

Document retentivity: At that place are no specific document retention requirements under 29 CFR 1910.38, aside from the requirement that employers develop and maintain a written EAP. If the employer has 10 (ten) or fewer employees, the plan does not have to exist in writing.

Fire Extinguishers

29 CFR 1910.157 – requires the employer to provide fire extinguishers and mount, locate and identify them and so that they are readily attainable to employees.

If employees are expected to use the fire extinguishers, the employer must provide training upon initial employment and at least annually thereafter. The employer must develop an educational plan if it expects the employees to use the burn down extinguishers. Many employers specifically prohibit employees from using the fire extinguishers to avoid this training obligation. If the employer permits the employees to use the fire extinguishers, the educational program and training should be in writing and maintained for the length of employment.

Permit-Required Confined Spaces

29 CFR 1910.146 – requires the employer to identify all confined spaces within the workplace that employees or outside contractors may be required to enter and contain a hazardous atmosphere, engulfment hazard, an internal configuration that could trap or asphyxiate an entrant or other serious safety or health risk. The employer must develop a written programme and procedures for employees who enter the confined spaces. Only trained and authorized employees can enter the space.

1910.146(c)(viii) – requires the host-employer to provide certain data to other contractors who volition have their employees enter the space.

Certificate retentiveness: Employers must retain each canceled entry permit for at least 1 twelvemonth and review them within 1 year after each entry. It is too appropriate to retain employee confined infinite grooming records for the duration of employment.

Bloodborne Pathogens

29 CFR 1910.1030 – requires an employer to develop a written program to protect employees at the workplace who are reasonably expected to have occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, i.e., bloodborne diseases. The employer is required to assess all jobs to determine if at that place is such exposure and if so, to train employees in the hazards, provide PPE and to develop procedures for medical evaluation and handling if an employee has actual exposure.

Document memory: Employers must retain employee exposure records for the duration of employment plus xxx years. Grooming records must be retained for 3 years from the engagement on which the training occurred, although information technology is advisable to retain training records for the duration of employment.

Respiratory Protection

29 CFR 1910.134 – requires the employer to conduct an assessment of the workplace to determine if there are harmful dusts, fumes, mists, sprays or vapors which may create a respiratory health hazard. If there are such hazards, the employer is required to develop a written respiratory protection program, to evaluate employees to determine if they are physically capable of wearing a respirator, to provide such respiratory protection, at the employer's cost, and train employees how to wear and maintain respiratory protection. The employer must enforce use of the respiratory protection.

Document retention: Employers must retain records of employee medical evaluations for the elapsing of employment plus 30 years. Employers must also retain fit test records for respirator users until the next fit test is administered.

Electric Rubber (Condom-Related Work Practices)

29 CFR 1910.331-.335 – requires an employer who volition let its employees to perform piece of work on or in the vicinity of exposed energized parts (which cannot exist locked out and tagged out) to provide extensive training in the hazards of working or in the vicinity of live electrical equipment, protective clothing and insulated tools and devices. The employer must designate employees as "authorized" in order to perform such work or "unqualified" in which case such employees cannot perform such piece of work. The employer may be required to behave an electrical exposure run a risk survey of electrical equipment under NFPA 70E in social club to determine what PPE should be used, what training is necessary, and to otherwise be in compliance with OSHA safety requirements.

Certificate retentiveness: OSHA's electric safety standards do non have any specific tape retention requirements, nevertheless it is advisable to retain employee preparation records under these standards for the duration of employment. If an employer conducts an electric exposure hazard survey, the employer should retain it for equally long as the hazard exists.

Access to Employee Exposure and Medical Records

29 CFR 1910.1020 – requires employer to inform employees of their right to accept access to all records maintained past the employer that reflect an employee'south exposure to any toxic substance or harmful physical agent (e.g., chemicals, dusts, vapors, noise, mold, etc.) or any medical records which the employer maintains on an employee, except for certain exceptions. Employees are entitled to have access and to obtain a copy at the employer's expense.

Document retentiveness: Employers must retain employee exposure records for the duration of employment plus thirty years. If the employer maintains certain employee medical records, the employer must retain them for the elapsing of employment plus thirty years.

Powered Industrial Trucks

29 CFR 1910.178 – requires an employer to develop a written program to railroad train all employees who volition be required and authorized to operate powered industrial trucks (including forklifts, manlifts, etc.) as to the hazards of such equipment and to certify their preparation after they receive classroom-type grooming and are actually observed operating the equipment under the physical conditions at the workplace, such every bit aisles, ramps, etc. The employee must be retrained and recertified every 3 years, at minimum, or after an blow or "nearly miss" which resulted from an unsafe act.

Document retention: The powered industrial truck standard does not specify how long training certifications must be retained after the initial certification or the certification required every 3 years or later a "near miss". It is appropriate that employers retain the grooming certifications for the duration of employment for each employee.

OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Fatalities, Injuries and Disease

29 CFR 1904.0 – the OSHA 300 Log must be maintained by employers unless there is an exemption, based on the NAICS code or the size of the employer. The employer is required to record on the Log, within 7 (7) calendar days, each fatality, injury or illness that is recordable under OSHA definitions. The host employer is required to enter into its Log the injuries or illnesses of outside employees at the worksite under sure conditions, for case, temporary employees who are under the direction and control of the host employer.

The OSHA 300 Log must be maintained and certified by the employer on an almanac basis. For each entry on the Log, there must be an OSHA 301 Incident Written report form, or its equivalent, which can be the employer's First Written report of Injury or Illness class required by the State worker's compensation police. An annual summary must be prepared and posted using the 300-A annual summary form or an equivalent. In order to comply with OSHA's recordkeeping requirements, it is critical that employees are trained from their initial employment that they must immediately study any occupational injury or illness to determine if it is recordable.

Certificate retention: The OSHA Log, the almanac summary, and the OSHA Incident Report forms must exist retained past employers for 5 years post-obit the stop of the calendar year that these records embrace. The OSHA Log must be maintained on an "institution footing" based on NAICS codes. Information technology is possible that employers may take some "establishments" where a Log must be maintained, and others where maintaining a Log is not necessary.

General Duty Clause

Department 5(a)(i) of the OSHA Human activity requires an employer to place "recognized hazards likely to crusade serious injury or death" to an employee, which hazards may not be regulated by a specific OSHA regulation, and to accept "viable" deportment to abate or correct such hazards.

This duty tin can be based upon the "recognition" of the chance in the employer'south ain, existing programs, or within the employer's industry. Some examples of this legal obligation may be:

Ergonomics

Heat illness

Workplace violence

Flammable dust

Document memory: While there are no specific standards for "recognized hazards" covered under the Full general Duty Clause, and thus no specific record retention requirements, it is advisable for employers to retain whatever training records information technology has developed addressing any "recognized hazards" for the duration of employment, including the written policy, preparation records and documents that evidence discipline for violation of the policy. Remember that sure documents related to General Duty Clause obligations may also fall under exposure/medical record-keeping requirements (run into #xi above).

Disciplinary Records

There is no regulation that requires an employer to maintain written records of employee discipline for violations of the employer'south prophylactic and health policies. If, however, the employer wants to credibly assert the "unavoidable employee misconduct" defense to avoid liability for OSHA citations, the employer is highly recommended to maintain written records of subject indicating the nature of the violation, the appointment, the name of the employee who committed the violation and the proper name of the supervisor who imposed the discipline.

This same documentation can exist useful in the outcome that the employer has to defend an employment discrimination or wrongful termination activeness past being able to prove that the action was based on a legitimate non-discriminatory reason, that is, violation of rubber and wellness policies.

CONCLUSION

In addition to the summary of OSHA-related documents discussed above, there are numerous other OSHA regulations that may have certificate retention requirements. If an employer is subject to any these regulations, the regulations must be reviewed and advisable certificate retention procedures must be developed.

Remember that it is critical that an employer control the flow of information during the inspection, including the information contained in documents. By avoiding product of documentary evidence that is not required by law, the employer reduces the potential for regulatory citations. Information technology is too critical that employers understand what documents they are required to create and retain. Even when an OSHA standard does not specify how long certain records must be retained, it is appropriate to consider retaining such records for a meaning length of fourth dimension. For example, many OSHA standards require employee training, but do non necessarily require documentation of preparation or retention of training documents. Nevertheless, information technology is advisable to gear up and retain training documents for the duration of employment considering training documents are oft indispensable in asserting certain defenses to citations.

Suburban Chicago Environmental, Health, Condom Specialist & Loss Control & Hazard professional. I am "Passionate Nigh Prophylactic" - Full-Fourth dimension Chore Leads Always Welcomed! ~ Contact me through LinkedIn View all posts past Jack Benton