Focus On OSHA Compliance
Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008 by bill reynolds

Watch Out…Is OSHA Throwing A DART At You?

 

Your DART rate is calculated by adding up the number of incidents that had one or more Lost Days, one or more Restricted Days or that resulted in an employee transferring to a different job within the company, and multiplying that number by 200,000, then dividing that number by the number of employee labor hours at the company.

 

In simple terms the “Number Of DART Incidents” is the sum total of the days indicated on columns K and L of the OSHA log (Form 300). So, looking at it this way, your DART rate is calculated as follows:

 

[(Column K + Column L) x 200,000] divided by the number of employee labor hours.

 

Why is it important to know your DART rate? OSHA it to develop annually what is known as a Site-Specific Targeting plan (SST).  The SST lays out what categories of companies OSHA considers high priority targets for safety and health inspections in a given year.  It amounts to a veritable "Most Wanted" list for OSHA compliance officers. 

The chance of a SST OSHA inspection for most organizations will depend on the frequency that their employees miss work, suffer work restrictions, or receive transfer assignments due to work injuries or illness.  The source of this information comes primarily from OSHA's survey of employer's incidents of injury and illness for the most current year that data is available, which is usually two years prior to the SST plan year.  Employers are required by law to complete the survey.  OSHA may also target particular industries that have a historically high injury rate, suspected underreporting employers, companies with other OSHA reported incidents, and those that failed to respond to the survey.

OSHA recently announced its 2008 Site-Specific Targeting Plan. You can find more details about it by visiting www.osha.gov. A careful reading of their SST plan will reveal that if you are on their list you may be subject to a complete, detailed OSHA inspection of your entire operation.

If you fall within the parameters of OSHA’ SST plan we strongly recommend that you quickly evaluate your safety program from an OSHA compliance perspective and prepare accordingly. You can now benchmark the effectiveness of your program using CompEraser’s Safety And Health Benchmark Survey. To access our FREE, on-line safety and health benchmark survey, go to www.comperaser.com today.

 

CompEraser also comes with on-line, on-demand resources needed to develop and implement an effective safety and health program. These resources include the formalization of your safety team, injury prevention, OSHA compliance, safety training, prompt injury response, workers compensation disability management, plus more. These resources are available 24/7 and used irrespective of which workers compensation carrier you select. Its patent-pending technology also provides unique financial reports for monitoring the effectiveness of your safety and health program on an on-going basis. For more information visit our website at www.CompEraser.com.

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OSHA Log & Privacy
Posted Sunday, April 6, 2008 by bill reynolds

Is You OSHA Log In Compliance With OSHA Privacy Regulations?

 

 

Did you know that Section 1904.29(b)(6) of the OSHA regulation outlines situations where your organization may not include the employee's name on the recordkeeping forms for privacy reasons? Under the law your organization must consider the following types of injuries or illnesses to be privacy concern issues:

  • An injury or illness to an intimate body part or to the reproductive system;
  • An injury or illness resulting from a sexual assault; 
  • A mental illness;
  • A case of HIV infection, hepatitis or tuberculosis;
  • A needle stick injury or cut from a sharp object that is contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious material (see CFR Part 1904.8 for definition), and
  • Other illnesses, if the employee independently and voluntarily requests that his or her name not be entered on the lOSHA log.

Your organization must not enter the employee’s name on the OSHA 300 log for these cases. Instead, you must enter “privacy case” in the space normally used for the employee’s name. You must also keep a separate, confidential list of the case numbers and employee names for the establishment’s privacy concern cases so that you can update the cases and provide information to the government if asked to do so.

 

If you have a reasonable basis to believe that information describing the privacy concern may be personally identifiable even though the employee’s name has been omitted, you must use discretion in describing the injury or illness on both the OSHA log 300 and 301 forms. You must enter enough information to identify the cause of the incident and the general severity of the injury or illness, but do not need to include details of an intimate or private nature.

 

CompEraser generates your OSHA log for you as part of its service in full OSHA compliance. For more information go to www.comperaser.com.

 

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Compliance Or Defiance
Posted Monday, March 24, 2008 by bill reynolds

Compliance Or Defiance – You Snooze You Lose

 

Closely tied to the reduction in workers compensation costs is the need to comply with the myriad of state and federal laws that impact the workers compensation claim management process. This is an extremely challenging and constantly evolving task for all claim management team members. For that reason a Human Resource Compliance Officer should be assigned to the claim management team, as well a legal advisor, to assist in this important area. The following are just a few of the laws that you confront every day:

 

1.     The applicable state workers compensation act;

 

2.     Key federal workers compensation and employer liability laws;

 

3.     International workers compensation law;

 

4.     The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA);

 

5.     The American With Disabilities Act (ADA);

 

6.     Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA);

 

7.     State and federal laws affecting the use of illegal drugs and alcohol in the workplace;

 

8.     Workers compensation fraud statutes;

 

9.     Privacy laws;

 

10.  Laws addressing the use of illegal use of drugs in the workplace;

 

11.    OSHA recordkeeping requirements, including the OSHA log.

 

This laws and regulations are actually on the tip of the iceberg when it comes to human resource compliance and they are extremely challenging to apply in worker injury situations. If implemented properly, however, they actually provide a solid basis for the claim management team to control key aspects of the claim process. If performed improperly or inconsistently, however, they may result in fines and penalties for both the organization and the members of the claim management team personally.

 

The Resource Library within the CompEraser system is loaded with all the tools, forms and checklists you must have to comply with the myriad of state and federal human resource laws and OSHA regulations. For more information go to www.comperaser.com.

 

 

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