Tip Tuesday! OSHA increases fine 400% for failing to report employee injuries

by Christian Schappel

Heads up: OSHA has cranked up the fine for failing to report workplace injuries in the time required.

OSHA just issued a new guidance memorandum — Revised Interim Enforcement Procedures for Reporting Requirements under 29 C.F.R. 1904.39 — to its inspectors. But there’s a clear warning in it for employers as well: Follow OSHA’s reporting requirements or pay dearly.

The memorandum raises the maximum penalty for not reporting fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations and eye losses from $1,000 to $5,000 — that’s a 400% jump.

It does not, however, change an area director’s authority to raise the penalty to as much as $7,000 if he or she determines the higher fine is necessary to create a “deterrent effect.”

What’s required?

Under OSHA’s new reporting rules, which took effect in 2015, here’s what employers are required to:

• Report the death of an employee as a result of a work-related incident within eight hours. This applies to fatalities that occur within 30 days of the work-related incident.
• Report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations of at least one employee within 24 hours.
• Report all work-related amputations within 24 hours.
• Report all work-related losses of an eye.

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