Last year, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced new rules that will require employers to electronically submit annual OSHA 300A employee illness and injury information. While employers are already required to maintain such information, the electronic submittals will eventually be available to the public. Last month, OSHA announced a short extension of the effective date of the new requirement from December 1 to December 15.

Covered employers must submit reports through OSHA’s new Injury Tracking Application (ITA) process. These reporting requirements may differ in states with their own OSHA deferral enforcement programs. For example, North Carolina has chosen to participate in the ITA process, while South Carolina has not. South Carolina employers are not required to electronically submit illness and injury records for the time being. At the federal level, OSHA’s eventual goal is for all states’ reports to be submitted to a centralized database in order to better determine injury trends and to focus enforcement and education efforts based on such information.