New deadlines and guidance: OSHA updates Email
News
Wednesday, December 27, 2017 03:00 AM


OSHAThe U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued several updates this week that may affect landscape companies.

Electronic reporting of injuries deadline extended again
OSHA will continue accepting 2016 OSHA Form 300A data through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) until midnight on December 31, 2017. OSHA will not take enforcement action against those employers who submit their reports after the December 15, 2017, deadline but before December 31, 2017, final entry date. Starting January 1, 2018, the ITA will no longer accept the 2016 data.

This electronic reporting was part of the Final Rule to Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, an effort to update data collection on injuries. Establishments with 250 or more employees in industries covered by the recordkeeping regulation were originally required to submit information from their 2016 Form 300A by July 1, 2017. Multiple extensions have been made to this rule.

Establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-risk industries—most landscape-related businesses fall into this category—were also required to submit information their 2016 Form 300A by July 1, 2017, and their 2017 Form 300A by July 1, 2018.

Additional guidance available on the silica standard
OSHA has released more than a dozen fact sheets that provide guidance on the respirable crystalline silica standard for construction. One fact sheet is an overview of the silica standard. The other fact sheets provide employers with information on how to fully and properly implement controls, work practices, and if needed, respiratory protection for each of the 18 tasks listed in Table 1 — Specified Exposure Control Methods under the standard.

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