What is OSHA Compliance & Who Needs To Comply?

What is OSHA Compliance?

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) inspections typically involve a request for the employer to produce certain documents. These documents pertain to certain specialized training that you provide to your employees and also some specific types of employee records and forms. Not every type of training that OSHA requires needs proof of training, but those that do have very specific requirements.

 

It is critical that an employer control the flow of information during OSHA inspection, including the information contained in documents. By avoiding production of documentary evidence that is not required by law, the employer reduces the potential for regulatory citations. It is also critical that employers understand what documents they are required to create and retain. Even when an OSHA standard does not specify how long certain records must be retained, it is advisable to consider retaining such records for a significant length of time.

Who needs to comply with OSHA Regulations?

Private sector workers, workers in the state and local governments and federal government employees in US are required to follow OSHA regulations and standards. However, OSHA’s jurisdiction does not cover self employed people, farm employees and their immediate relatives and workplaces that are regulated by other federal laws concerning workplace safety, such as the Coast Guards or the Department of Energy.

 

During OSHA inspection, the employer should request the compliance officer to make the document request in writing so that there is no confusion over what documents are being requested and that the employer is not cited for failure to produce a document it did not believe was requested by the compliance officer. It is important to note that any documents produced can be utilized to issue citations, thus, the employer should not produce any documents unless required by law.

Which Types of Documentation need to be streamlined for OSHA certification?

  • Employee Training & Certification documents for:
    • Personal protective equipment (PPE training documentation)
    • Hazardous waste operations (HAZWOPER training documentation)
    • Forklift training documentation
    • Process safety management (PSM)
    • Respiratory protection
    • Bloodborne Pathogens
    • Permit-required confined spaces
    • Powered industrial trucks
    • Lockout/tag out (LOTO)
    • Electrical Safety (Safety-Related Work Practices)
  • OSHA 300 Log of Work-Related Fatalities, Injuries and Illnesses
  • Emergency Action Plans (EAPs)
  • Employee Exposure and Medical Records
  • General Duty Clause
  • Disciplinary Records

How does LuitBiz DMS & QMS help you become OSHA compliant?

Standard #

What it means

How LuitBiz DMS & QMS helps

1904.5: Determination of work-relatedness

Recording an injury when employer is provided with different medical opinions, clarification of preexisting injury / illness, recording and reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.

In LuitBiz DMS all the medical records of the employees along with their complete medical records can be stored and easily accessed. LuitBiz DMS has built-in OCR functionality using which even scanned documents can be easily searched and retrieved during an OSHA inspection.

1904.6: Determination of new cases

Clarification of the terms most authoritative and pre-existing conditions as used for recordkeeping purposes and determining work-relatedness when the work event or exposure is only one of the discernable causes; not the sole or predominant cause.

Group leaders can create tagging templates in LuitBiz DMS to record specific fields for pre-existing conditions and medical opinions. The values of these fields can be easily searched and the relevant documents can be easily retrieved during OSHA inspections.

In LuitBiz QMS, quality forms can be designed to record pre-existing conditions of employees that can be easily searched and the relevant documents can be easily retrieved during OSHA inspections.

1904.7: General Recording Criteria

All prescription medications, including preventive antibiotics, should be considered medical treatment and are recordable. Additionally clarifications about pre-existing injury or illness, hot therapy as first aid, injuries involving broken or chipped teeth etc. should also be recorded and securely stored in the system.

All these documents can be scanned and uploaded in LuitBiz DMS and easily retrieved using the built-in OCR functionality of LuitBiz DMS. All documents stored in LuitBiz DMS are encrypted using AES-256 technology for enhanced security and decrypted while rendering the documents in the software.

1904.8: Recording criteria for needlestick and sharps injuries

Employee access to needlestick and contaminated sharps injury log requirements

In LuitBiz DMS employers can share employee records using the LuitBiz DMS "View" module where employees can view the documents pertaining to their injuries and medical records.

1904.10: Recording criteria for cases involving occupational hearing loss.

Recording criteria for cases involving occupational hearing loss when employees use hearing protection. If an employee's hearing test (audiogram) reveals that the employee has experienced a work-related Standard Threshold Shift (STS) in hearing in one or both ears, and the employee's total hearing level is 25 decibels (dB) or more above audiometric zero (averaged at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hz) in the same ear(s) as the STS, the employer must record the case on the OSHA 300 Log.

In LuitBiz DMS the OSHA 300 forms are provided as documents in the template library. Employers can download these forms from LuitBiz DMS, fill it up for the employees when required against the employee code and easily retrieve them easily.

In LuitBiz QMS the OSHA 300 forms can be designed by the quality team. Employees can fill up these forms online and designated approvers can approve these forms with their electronic signatures.

1904.11: Recording criteria for work-related tuberculosis cases

Health impacts (such as COVID, SARS or MRSA) from shared office equipment, contaminated surfaces or infections as a result of a workplace exposure is recordable if it meets one or more of the criteria outlined in 29 CFR 1904.7 through 1904.11.

In LuitBiz DMS & QMS employers can manage SOPs related to the measures taken to minimize or eliminate the potential for employees to contract infectious diseases which are work-related. The built-in version control of LuitBiz DMS allows employers to manage all the versions of these SOPs centrally and update them as and when necessary. These versions can be easily retrieved during OSHA inspections. Additionally, all records related to injuries / infections caused due to workplace exposure is recordable in LuitBiz DMS and easily retrieved.

1904.29: Forms

Employer obligation to provide access to entire OSHA 300 Logs, including names of both union and non-union employees.

In LuitBiz DMS OSHA 300 Forms are provided as standard templates. These can be downloaded and filled up for all employees and retrieved easily after they are uploaded to LuitBiz DMS. Additionally, if these forms need to go through an approval process, the process can be easily designed in LuitBiz DMS. The approval can then take place via LuitBiz DMS with electronic signature.

In LuitBiz QMS OSHA 300 Forms can be designed as standard templates by the quality department. These can be filled up online by employees, approved and implemented. The approval takes place via LuitBiz QMS with electronic signature that are embedded in the form body.

1904.30 & 1904.31: Multiple business establishments & Covered employees

Clarification of Multiple Business Establishments and Covered Employees. Section 1904.30(a) requires employers to maintain a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer. The requirements in Section 1904.31 assign the responsibility for recording and reporting to the employer with the greatest amount of control over the working conditions that led to the injury or illness.

LuitBiz DMS & QMS supports multiple business locations. So, employers can fill out the OSHA 300 forms for employees of their business locations separately, share it with the employees (as "View" users), if required and retrieve them easily during OSHA inspections.

1904.33: Retention and updating

OSHA 300 Logs need to be updated regularly and the different training records need to be retained for various periods of time.

The version-control mechanism of LuitBiz DMS & QMS allows to manage the different versions of the OSHA 300 logs. The complete audit trail of all the modifications made in the documents are time-stamped and stored in the software. Additionally, LuitBiz DMS has a feature to define retention periods of different groups of documents. Once these retention periods are defined, the group leaders are alerted when a document reaches its end-of-life and can be deleted.

1904.40 & 1904.41: Providing records to government representatives

Section 1904.29(b)(10) includes requirements for the protection of employee privacy when the employer decides to voluntarily disclose information from the OSHA 300 and 301 forms to persons other than those with a mandatory right of access under the recordkeeping regulation. In addition to the authorized government representatives listed in section 1904.40, those persons listed in section 1904.29(b)(10) may have access to the confidential list of employee names involving privacy concern cases.

When required, the employee record documents can be emailed to the authorized government representatives for inspection purposes directly from LuitBiz DMS. Complete audit trail of these emails sent to the Government representatives are also available in LuitBiz DMS.

1904.41: Providing records to government representatives

Section 1904.29(b)(10) includes requirements for the protection of employee privacy when the employer decides to voluntarily disclose information from the OSHA 300 and 301 forms to persons other than those with a mandatory right of access under the recordkeeping regulation. In addition to the authorized government representatives listed in section 1904.40, those persons listed in section 1904.29(b)(10) may have access to the confidential list of employee names involving privacy concern cases.

When required, the employee record documents can be emailed to the authorized government representatives for inspection purposes directly from LuitBiz DMS. Complete audit trail of these emails sent to the Government representatives are also available in LuitBiz DMS.