OSHA Expands Employee Safety Protections

OSHA recently published what they’re calling a supplemental Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to the rulemaking titled “Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses,” or what’s more commonly referred to as the electronic injury and illness reporting regulation. 

In the supplemental, the text states that “OSHA is considering adding provisions that will make it a violation for an employer to discourage employee reporting in these ways.” Union representatives commented at a public meeting in January that employers are suppressing employees from coming forward with injuries and that the proposed regulation would result in employers underreporting incidents. In response, OSHA intends to create a way to use whistleblower protections under sec. 11(c) to go after employers without a complaint from an employee as a traditional whistleblower action would require.

The new supplemental also proposes to require employers to specifically inform employees how to report injuries and illnesses. It also would prohibit employers from creating unreasonably burdensome requirements for reporting injuries and illnesses. 

While the supplemental doesn’t mention it, this is likely to be the platform OSHA will use to go after safety incentive programs. The supplemental poses a series of 18 questions which don’t appear to be answerable by employers. For instance, #8: “Are you aware of any examples of reporting requirements that you consider to be unreasonably burdensome and could discourage reporting? What are they?”

Click here to review the supplemental NPRM.