Employers must notify federal authorities of work-related deaths within eight hours and severe injuries within 24 hours under a final rule posted today by OSHA. Incidents that must be reported within 24 hours include in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and eye loss. The new rule will take effect Jan. 1.
Prior to today’s rule, employers were only required to report work-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations in incidents involving three or more employees. Employers were not required to report single hospitalizations, amputations or eye losses. OSHA is developing a Web portal in addition to existing phone reporting options to help employers comply with the new rules.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4,405 workers were killed on the job in 2013.
