WASHINGTON – Employers under the jurisdiction of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began the New Year with revised rules for reporting work-related injuries and fatalities.

Currently, all work-related fatalities must be reported within eight hours, and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, amputations and all losses of an eye must be reported within 24 hours. The revision includes an expanded list of work-related injuries employers must report to OSHA.

"OSHA will now receive crucial reports of fatalities and severe work-related injuries and illnesses that will significantly enhance the agency's ability to target our resources to save lives and prevent further injury and illness," said Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health. "This new data will enable the agency to identify the workplaces where workers are at the greatest risk and target our compliance assistance and enforcement resources accordingly."

Employers have the option of calling OSHA's toll-free number or the closest area office during normal business hours. A new online form to report work-related incidents will soon be available, the agency noted.

Other recordkeeping revisions include updates to the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to keep routine OSHA injury and illness records. The agency changed the rule due to "relatively low occupational and injury rates". The new list of exempt industries is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) and injury and illness data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) from 2007, 2008, and 2009.

A fact sheet provides details OSHA's updated recordkeeping rule.