What is the OSHA Form 300A? The OSHA Form 300A is the second page of the OSHA Form 300. The first page (Form 300) contains a log for work-related injuries and illnesses designed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). All employers with ten or more employees, not classified as partially exempt are required by law to record.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, requires employers to maintain a current and accurate log of workplace injuries. The information collected on this OSHA 300 log is used by the agency and employers to evaluate the safety of the workplace, to minimize or prevent workplace injuries and to understand industrial hazards. Employers are required to provide safe and healthy workplaces for their employees, and the OSHA log is one way of monitoring how well employers are meeting this expectation.
Employers required to report workplace injuries include all businesses with more than 10 employees unless they are in one of the partially exempted industries. These include specific low-hazard retail businesses, service-based businesses and finance, insurance, and real estate entities. These business types are exempted because of the low-risk nature of their business operations.
These incidents can be reported by calling the confidential OSHA hot line, which operates 24 hours a day (1-800-321-6742), by calling the local area office during normal business hours or by using the online reporting form on the OSHA website.
OSHA's definition of work-related injuries, illnesses or fatalies are those in which an event of exposure in the work environment caused or contributed to the condition.
The OSHA 300 log includes information about the business at the top of every page, followed by a brief description of each recordable injury or illness. The description includes the date; a short narrative of the incident, generally one to two lines; the result, such as days lost or hospitalization; and any corrective action taken to prevent future incidents of a similar nature. The employee's name may be left off the form if there are concerns about privacy -- for example, in the case of sexual assault. This information is summarized at the end of the year on the OSHA 300-A form.
Employers are required to maintain these documents on site for a minimum of three years. Employers must post the log for the prior year in a publicly visible place from Feb. 1 to April 30 of the current year.
Businesses founded after January 1, 2002, never used the OSHA 200 log form. OSHA, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, replaced the two-page 200 log, also known as OSHA No. 200, with the 300 series of forms when it revised reporting requirements starting that year. OSHA required companies employing more than 10 people in 12 different industries to record work-related injury and illness incidents on the form. These covered businesses also used it to summarize year-long accident activity.
OSHA kept the five-year retention requirement from the 200 log when it introduced Form 300. The agency estimated that entering details for each incident on the 200 log took employers an average of 15 minutes. Its replacement, Form 300, has a very similar average of 14 minutes. The 200 log featured a page of reportable incidents for the year that employers had to post for employees to see. In 2002 OSHA created a new document, Form 300-A, for this posting requirement.
When it introduced Form 300, OSHA kept the requirement that made injuries and illnesses reportable if an employee needed more than first aid. However, it adjusted several definitions of injuries and illnesses. Employers based their 200 log entries on how OSHA defined occupational injuries at the time: sprains, cuts, fractures, amputations and insect or snake bites. They noted occupational illnesses according to OSHA's then-definition as conditions caused by direct contact, absorption, ingestion or inhalation of substances in the work environment. The list of reportable illnesses included food poisoning, chemical burns, asbestos-related lung diseases and respiratory illnesses caused by fumes, dust and gases.
As of 2015, reportable work-related illnesses and injuries for the 300 log include death as well as those that cause an employee to miss work, lose consciousness, require more than first aid treatment, be transferred to a different position or work reduced hours. Cancer and tuberculosis are examples of reportable illnesses employers must record on Form 300. Reportable injuries include punctures from objects contaminated by blood or infectious substances, and punctured eardrums.
OSHA considered first aid in its Form 200 era to be one-time treatment of splinters, burns, cuts and minor scratches. However, it redefined the term when it launched the Form 300 record-keeping system to include tetanus shots and non-prescription medication, arm slings and finger guards. As of publication, these treatments are not recordable.