According to Bloomberg BNA, the Labor Department temporarily shut down OSHA’s (ITA) “Injury Tracking Application” portal for employers to report injuries and illnesses so that OSHA can investigate a “potential compromise” of a company's electronic data. 

The Homeland Security Department informed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Aug. 14 that “there is a potential compromise of user information for OSHA's Injury Tracking Application,” according to the DOL as reported by Bloomberg BNA, and  “At this time, one company appears to have been affected and that company has been notified of the issue. Access to the ITA has been temporarily suspended as OSHA works with the system developer to examine the issue to determine the extent of the problem.”

OSHA's tracking website currently states that “due to technical difficulties with the website, some pages are temporarily unavailable.” The portal went live Aug. 1, 2017,  although the initial submissions begin to be phased in on January 1, 2017.

Who: Establishments with 250 or more employees that are currently required to keep OSHA injury and illness records, and establishments with 20-249 employees that are classified in certain industries with historically high rates of occupational injuries and illnesses.

What: Covered establishments with 250 or more employees must electronically submit information from OSHA Forms 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), and 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report). Covered establishments with 20-249 employees must electronically submit information from OSHA Form 300A.

When: The requirement becomes effective on January 1, 2017. The new reporting requirements will be phased in over two years. In 2017, all covered establishments must submit information from their completed 2016 Form 300A by July 1, 2017. In 2018, covered establishments with 250 or more employees must submit information from all completed 2017 forms (300A, 300, and 301) by July 1, 2018, and covered establishments with 20-249 employees must submit information from their completed 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018. Beginning in 2019 and every year thereafter, covered establishments must submit the information by March 2.

How: OSHA will provide a secure website that offers three options for data submission. First, users will be able to manually enter data into a web form. Second, users will be able to upload a CSV file to process single or multiple establishments at the same time. Last, users of automated recordkeeping systems will have the ability to transmit data electronically via an API (application programming interface). We will provide status updates and related information here as it becomes available.

What to Do.

Many employers and trade associations vigorously oppose the Rule and its potential to be used to shame employers or aid in union drives or public organizations’ attacks on publicly traded or high-visibility companies.  A number of former OSHA officials, including former OSHA head, Dr. Michaels and Jordan Barab have vigorously argued for the Rule’s full implementation and any decision to not do so will likely generate even more litigation. If one is a betting person, the likely outcome is that the Rule does in fact begin on January 1, 2017.

According to Bloomberg BNA’s Bruce Rolfsen, “some management attorneys have been advising clients not to report during this period of uncertainty in which data disclosure to DOL is voluntary.”

Given that the submission obligation starts in January 2017, this advice is sound. Get ready, learn the OSHA site, audit and clean up your recordkeeping logs, and be ready. WHEN WE AUDIT Employer 300s, 300As and related materials and systems, we almost always encounter technical errors, as well as wrongly recorded injuries that make an employer look badly.