• Conscientious and detailed records can provide employers with a clear picture of their work environment, and can help prevent work-related injuries and illnesses in the future. 
• Injury and illness data can help identify problem areas. The more you know, the better you can identify and correct hazardous workplace conditions. 
• Employers can better administer company safety and health programs with accurate records. 
• As employee awareness about injuries, illnesses, and hazards in the workplace increases, workers are more likely to follow safe work practices and report workplace hazards.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) requires most Michigan employers with 11 or more employees to log and maintain records of work-related injuries and illnesses, and to make those records available during MIOSHA inspections of the workplace.

On October 1, 2009, federal OSHA launched a National Emphasis Program on Recordkeeping to help verify the accuracy of injury and illness data reported by employers. OSHA will send inspectors into worksites across the country to review the occupational injury and illness records prepared by businesses. MIOSHA will participate in this emphasis program.

"Accurate injury and illness records are vital to help MIOSHA determine how well an employer is doing at providing a safe and healthful workplace," said MIOSHA Director Doug Kalinowski. "This information not only helps us determine which workplaces to inspect, it also helps us target our consultation and education activities to those businesses most in need of our services."

These records include: MIOSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses); MIOSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report); and MIOSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses). The summary must list the total numbers of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred in 2009 and were logged on the MIOSHA Form 300. Employment information about annual average number of employees and total hours worked during the calendar year is also required to assist in calculating incidence rates.

Companies with no injuries and illnesses during the previous year are still required to post the MIOSHA Form 300A with zeros entered on the total line. A company executive must certify that the totals are correct and sign the form, which is then displayed wherever notices to employees are usually posted.

Employers with 10 or fewer employees and employers in certain industry groups (retail trade, finance, insurance and real estate, and certain services industries) are normally exempt from the MIOSHA recordkeeping and posting requirements. These exemptions do not exclude any employer from coverage by MIOSHA or from compliance with all applicable safety and health standards.

The MIOSHA Consultation Education and Training (CET) Division provides extensive recordkeeping outreach activities. CET safety and health consultants have developed PowerPoint™ presentations, training materials, and flow charts with medical treatment examples. Annually, CET schedules recordkeeping training seminars across the state. Please contact the CET Division at 517.322.1809, or at www.michigan.gov/cet, for more information.

Recordkeeping information is available on the MIOSHA website at www.michigan.gov/recordkeeping. This site includes: general guidelines, the forms, and frequent Q & As. To receive the required forms, employers can also call 517.322.1851. The recordkeeping rule, Part 11, Recording and Reporting of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, is found at www.michigan.gov/mioshastandards. Employers can call the Management Information Systems Section at 517.322.1848 for information about recording injuries and illnesses. For additional information on the MIOSHA program, please visit our website at www.michigan.gov/miosha.

All employers are also reminded they are required by law to notify MIOSHA within eight hours of a fatality or any hospitalization of three or more employees suffering injury or illness from an accident. A special report line is available 24 hours, at the Fatality & Catastrophe Hotline, 800.858.0397.


Read more releases from the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor & Economic Growth 
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