Who must keep records, 29 CFR 1904.1(a)(1)
The small-employer exemption applies only if the company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, counted company-wide at the peak.
A contractor with 9 employees most of the year and 14 at its summer peak is not exempt, because 14 exceeds 10 at one point in the year. It must keep the records.
The traps:
- An average is not the test.
- A year-end headcount is not the test.
- Recordkeeping is not limited to fatalities; a non-exempt employer keeps the full records.
Recording deadline, 1904.29(b)(3)
A recordable injury or illness is entered on the OSHA 300 Log and 301 Incident Report within 7 calendar days of receiving information that it occurred.
Count calendar days, weekends included. Information received on Thursday, March 5 gives March 5 + 7 = Thursday, March 12.
The traps:
- Counting 7 business days lands on Monday, March 16.
- A 24-hour deadline (Friday, March 6) belongs to severe-injury reporting.
- Counting 14 days lands on Thursday, March 19.
Reporting a death, 1904.39
A work-related fatality is reported to OSHA within 8 hours only if the death occurs within 30 days of the work-related incident (1904.39(b)(6) sets the 30-day window).
A carpenter who falls, is hospitalized and dies 45 days later is outside the window: no fatality report to OSHA is required. The case must still be recorded where the employer is required to keep records. Reporting and recording are separate duties.
The traps:
- The 24-hour deadline is for in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye, not a death.
- The 8-hour clock runs from the death, not from the fall. Reporting within 8 hours of the fall confuses the incident with the death.
- Had he died within 30 days, the report would be due within 8 hours of the death.
Keep the clocks apart
- 8 hours: fatality within 30 days.
- 24 hours: hospitalization, amputation, eye loss.
- 7 calendar days: entry on the 300 Log and 301 report.