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Am I OSHA Compliant?

By May 12, 2018July 5th, 2018Business Insurance

Arguably one of the most regulated government agencies is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, also known as OSHA. For a small business, trying to keep up with all of these regulations can be frustrating when trying to determine things like what should I record, who do I submit it to and what kind of business am I “classified” (according to them) as.

These regulations may seem daunting at first and navigating OSHA.gov can be a nightmare. It really could be explained much more simply and that’s what I plan to do here.

When faced with any sort of claim whether it be employee, customer, passerby, or yourself, you must fill out the 301, 300, and 300A forms…so what are they?

The 301: Incident Report

This is what you fill out first. The 301 Form must be filled out within 7 days of an accident. It covers names, addresses, doctor info, injury, and what caused the injury. This allows you to write down the accident right when it happens because if you’re anything like me, after 7 days you probably won’t remember what happened even if you were the one who got hurt.

The 300: Log of Work Related Injuries

This is a much more comprehensive form that organizes all of your injuries over the course of a year. It is supposed to give you a compact visual narrative that can show potential patterns in injuries. For example, if three people have tripped over the same hose over the course of a year maybe you should move the hose.

The 300A: Summary of Work-Related Injuries

This is the most important part of the OSHA process because this is what you have to submit annually. What you’ll do is add your total number of employees, determine the number of pay period your company had during this year (Bi-monthly pay would be 24 pay periods), then divide your total number of employees by pay periods. This allows OSHA to see where your averages land compared to other people in your industry so they can determine which industries have the highest rate of injury and how it can be prevented moving forward.

Submitting OSHA Forms

Industries such as manufacturing, construction, and other “high risk” jobs are now being asked to submit their files electronically by email. This does not mean other industries can’t, it just means they don’t have to. However, if I was not in one of the more regulated industries, I would go ahead and get in the practice of doing so because it is only a matter of time until OSHA makes it a requirement for everyone.

Keeping up to date with these regulations is a frustrating and a seemingly unimportant part of business, but when you select Insurance People of North Carolina as your Insurance Agency, you will not only get the right coverage, you will also gain a valuable business partner who will keep you informed about stuff like OSHA regulation changes when you need to know it.