Is Your Employer In Compliance With Tennessee’s New OSHA Reporting Rules?
OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) is a part of the United States Department of Labor and created by Congress to assure safe and healthy working conditions by setting standards and guidelines and providing information, training and assistance to workers and employees. To help accomplish this goal, the organization affords workers protections under the law without the retaliation or discrimination from their employer. Further, it enables workers to be able to ask OSHA to inspect their workplace; it allows workers to request a record review of work-related injuries and illnesses from their employer and for workers to receive information and training about hazards and OSHA standards, as well as to receive copies of their own medical records.
Currently, employers are only required to report workplace-related fatalities and in-patient hospitalizations of an incident involving three or more employees to their nearest OSHA office within eight (8) hours.
However, on February 24, 2015, the new rule will going into effect will require employers to report any hospitalized employee, loss of an eye or any amputation, and motor vehicle accidents in construction work zones. The time to report these incidents however, has been extended from 8 to 24 hours for all incidents except fatalities.
The changes with respect to the reporting requirements are part of the continuing pledge by OSHA to strictly monitor and strongly maintain a safe workplace for all employees. That said, due to relatively low occupational hazard and on-the-job injury and illness reporting, OSHA has generated a list of several industries that either are fully or partially exempt from having to comply with these OSHA requirements. To see if your employer is on the list visit:
https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping2014/OSHA3744.pdf
In Tennessee, the toll free number to call to report an incident is 1-800-249-8510. If a TOSHA official cannot be reached by phone, employers must report the incident using the federal OSHA number: 1-800-321-OSHA.
If you or a loved one has been injured on the job, don’t leave proper reporting your injury to OSHA up to your employer; furthermore, don’t ever assume that your employer is taking the right actions to provide you with the medical treatment and benefits you deserve for your injuries. The hard-nosed team of experienced and specialized workers’ compensation attorneys at Rocky McElhaney Law Firm know how the system works and will work to ensure you receive the proper care, medical treatment and benefits you are owed under the law. Give us a call at (615) 425-2500. We fight for you.