Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-01-03-.04 - OTHER TOSHA INJURY AND ILLNESS RECORDKEEPING REQUIREMENTS

(1) Multiple business establishments.

(a) Basic requirement. You must keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer.

(b) Implementation.

1. Do I need to keep TOSHA injury and illness records for short-term establishments (i.e., establishments that will exist for less than a year)? Yes, however, you do not have to keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each such establishment. You may keep one OSHA 300 Log that covers all of your short-term establishments. You may also include the short-term establishments' recordable injuries and illnesses on an OSHA 300 Log that covers short-term establishments for individual company divisions or geographic regions.

2. May I keep the records for all of my establishments at my headquarters location or at some other central location? Yes, you may keep the records for an establishment at your headquarters or other central location if you can:

(i) Transmit information about the injuries and illnesses from the establishment to the central location within seven (7) calendar days of receiving information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred; and

(ii) Produce and send the records from the central location to the establishment within the time frames required by Rule 0800-01-03-.04(6) and Rule 0800-01-03-.05(2) when you are required to provide records to a government representative, employees, former employees or employee representatives.

3. Some of my employees work at several different locations or do not work at any of my establishments at all. How do I record cases for these employees? You must link each of your employees with one of your establishments, for recordkeeping purposes. You must record the injury and illness on the OSHA 300 Log of the injured or ill employee's establishment, or on an OSHA 300 Log that covers that employee's short-term establishment.

4. How do I record an injury or illness when an employee of one of my establishments is injured or becomes ill while visiting or working at another of my establishments, or while working away from any of my establishments? If the injury or illness occurs at one of your establishments, you must record the injury or illness on the OSHA 300 Log of the establishment at which the injury or illness occurred. If the employee is injured or becomes ill and is not at one of your establishments, you must record the case on the OSHA 300 Log at the establishment at which the employee normally works.

(2) Covered employees.

(a) Basic requirement. You must record on the OSHA 300 Log the recordable injuries and illnesses of all employees on your payroll, whether they are labor, executive, hourly, salary, part-time, seasonal, or migrant workers. You also must record the recordable injuries and illnesses that occur to employees who are not on your payroll if you supervise these employees on a day-to-day basis. If your business is organized as a sole proprietorship or partnership, the owner or partners are not considered employees for recordkeeping purposes.

(b) Implementation.

1. If a self-employed person is injured or becomes ill while doing work at my business, do I need to record the injury or illness? No, self-employed individuals are not covered by the Act or this rule.

2. If I obtain employees from a temporary help service, employee leasing service, or personnel supply service, do I have to record an injury or illness occurring to one of those employees? You must record these injuries and illnesses if you supervise these employees on a day-to-day basis.

3. If an employee in my establishment is a contractor's employee, must I record an injury or illness occurring to that employee? If the contractor's employee is under the day-to-day supervision of the contractor, the contractor is responsible for recording the injury or illness. If you supervise the contractor employee's work on a day-to-day basis, you must record the injury or illness.

4. Must the personnel supply service, temporary help service, employee leasing service, or contractor also record the injuries or illnesses occurring to temporary, leased or contract employees that I supervise on a day-to-day basis? No, you and the temporary help service, employee leasing service, personnel supply service, or contractor should coordinate your efforts to make sure that each injury and illness is recorded only once: either on your OSHA 300 Log (if you provide day-to-day supervision) or on the other employer's OSHA 300 Log (if that company provides day-to-day supervision).

(3) Annual summary.

(a) Basic requirement. At the end of each calendar year, you must:

1. Review the OSHA 300 Log to verify that the entries are complete and accurate, and correct any deficiencies identified;

2. Create an annual summary of injuries and illnesses recorded on the OSHA 300 Log;

3. Certify the summary; and

4. Post the annual summary.

(b) Implementation.

1. How extensively do I have to review the OSHA 300 Log entries at the end of the year? You must review the entries as extensively as necessary to make sure that they are complete and correct.

2. How do I complete the annual summary? You must:

(i) Total the columns on the OSHA 300 Log (if you had no recordable cases, enter zeros for each column total); and

(ii) Enter the calendar year covered, the company's name, establishment name, establishment address, annual average number of employees covered by the OSHA 300 Log, and the total hours worked by all employees covered by the OSHA 300 Log.

(iii) If you are using an equivalent form other than the OSHA 300-A summary form, the summary you use must also include the employee access and employer penalty statements found on the OSHA 300-A Summary form.

3. How do I certify the annual summary? A company executive must certify that he or she has examined the OSHA 300 Log and that he or she reasonably believes, based on his or her knowledge of the process by which the information was recorded, that the annual summary is correct and complete.

4. Who is considered a company executive? The company executive who certifies the log must be one of the following persons:

(i) An owner of the company (only if the company is a sole proprietorship or partnership);

(ii) An officer of the corporation;

(iii) The highest ranking company official working at the establishment; or

(iv) The immediate supervisor of the highest ranking company official working at the establishment.

5. How do I post the annual summary? You must post a copy of the annual summary in each establishment in a conspicuous place or places where notices to employees are customarily posted. You must ensure that the posted annual summary is not altered, defaced or covered by other material.

6. When do I have to post the annual summary? You must post the summary no later than February 1 of the year following the year covered by the records and keep the posting in place until April 30.

(4) Retention and updating.

(a) Basic requirement. You must save the OSHA 300 Log, the privacy case list (if one exists), the annual summary, and the OSHA 301 Incident Report forms for five (5) years following the end of the calendar year that these records cover.

(b) Implementation.

1. Do I have to update the OSHA 300 Log during the five-year storage period? Yes, during the storage period, you must update your stored OSHA 300 Logs to include newly discovered recordable injuries or illnesses and to show any changes that have occurred in the classification of previously recorded injuries and illnesses. If the description or outcome of a case changes, you must remove or line out the original entry and enter the new information.

2. Do I have to update the annual summary? No, you are not required to update the annual summary, but you may do so if you wish.

3. Do I have to update the OSHA 301 Incident Reports? No, you are not required to update the OSHA 301 Incident Reports, but you may do so if you wish.

(5) Change in business ownership. If your business changes ownership, you are responsible for recording and reporting work-related injuries and illnesses only for that period of the year during which you owned the establishment. You must transfer the records required by these rules to the new owner. The new owner must save all records of the establishment kept by the prior owner, as required by Rule 0800-01-03-.04(4), but need not update or correct the records of the prior owner.

(6) Employee involvement.

(a) Basic requirement. Your employees and their representatives must be involved in the recordkeeping system in several ways.

1. You must inform each employee of how he or she is to report a work-related injury or illness to you.

2. You must provide employees with the information described in paragraph (b)1(iii) of this rule.

3. You must provide access to your injury and illness records for your employees and their representatives as described in paragraph (b)2 of this rule.

(b) Implementation.

1. What must I do to make sure that employees report work-related injuries and illnesses to me?

(i) You must establish a reasonable procedure for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses promptly and accurately. A procedure is not reasonable if it would deter or discourage a reasonable employee from accurately reporting a workplace injury or illness;

(ii) You must inform each employee of your procedure for reporting work-related injuries and illnesses;

(iii) You must inform each employee that:

(I) Employees have the right to report work-related injuries and illnesses; and

(II) Employers are prohibited from discharging or in any manner discriminating against employees for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses; and

(iv) You must not discharge or in any manner discriminate against any employee for reporting a work-related injury or illness.

2. Do I have to give my employees and their representatives access to the TOSHA injury and illness records? Yes, your employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives have the right to access the TOSHA injury and illness records, with some limitations, as discussed below.

(i) Who is an authorized employee representative? An authorized employee representative is an authorized collective bargaining agent of employees.

(ii) Who is a "personal representative" of an employee or former employee? A personal representative is:

(I) Any person that the employee or former employee designates as such, in writing; or

(II) The legal representative of a deceased or legally incapacitated employee or former employee.

(iii) If an employee or representative asks for access to the OSHA 300 Log, when do I have to provide it? When an employee, former employee, personal representative, or authorized employee representative asks for copies of your current or stored OSHA 300 Log(s) for an establishment the employee or former employee has worked in, you must give the requester a copy of the relevant OSHA 300 Log(s) by the end of the next business day.

(iv) May I remove the names of the employees or any other information from the OSHA 300 Log before I give copies to an employee, former employee, or employee representative? No, you must leave the names on the 300 Log. However, to protect the privacy of injured and ill employees, you may not record the employee's name on the OSHA 300 Log for certain "privacy concern cases," as specified in Rules 0800-01-03-.03(27)(b) 6 through Rule 0800-01-03-.03(27)(b) 9.

(v) If an employee or representative asks for access to the OSHA 301 Incident Report, when do I have to provide it?

(I) When an employee, former employee, or personal representative asks for a copy of the OSHA 301 Incident Report describing an injury or illness to that employee or former employee, you must give the requester a copy of the OSHA 301 Incident Report containing that information by the end of the next business day.

(II) When an authorized employee representative asks for copies of the OSHA 301 Incident Reports for an establishment where the agent represents employees under a collective bargaining agreement, you must give copies of those forms to the authorized employee representative within 7 calendar days. You are only required to give the authorized employee representative information from the OSHA 301 Incident Report section titled "Tell us about the case." You must remove all other information from the copy of the OSHA 301 Incident Report or the equivalent substitute form that you give to the authorized employee representative.

(vi) May I charge for the copies? No, you may not charge for these copies the first time they are provided. However, if one of the designated persons asks for additional copies, you may assess a reasonable charge for retrieving and copying the records.

(7) In addition to 0800-01-03-.04(6), T.C.A. § 50-3-409 also prohibits you from discriminating against an employee for reporting a work-related fatality, injury, or illness. That provision of the Act also protects the employee who files a safety and health complaint, asks for access to 0800-01-03 records, or otherwise exercises any rights afforded by the TOSH Act.

Notes

Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-01-03-.04

Original rule certified June 10, 1974. Amendment filed March 17, 1978; effective April 16, 1978. Repeal and new rule filed August 30, 2001; effective December 28, 2001. Amendments filed August 26, 2016; effective 11/24/2016.

Authority: T.C.A. §§ 4-3-1411, 50-3-201, 50-3-409, 50-3-701, and 50-3-917.