Hunton Employment & Labor Perspectives

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) went live with its Severe Injury Report Dashboard (“SIR Dashboard”). The SIR Dashboard provides the public with searchable data set of employer’s severe injury reports reported to OSHA between January 2015 to December 2023. 

Since January 2015, employers have been required to report severe injuries to OSHA.  Severe injuries are defined as “in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees or an employee’s amputation or an employee’s loss of an eye.”  Employers must report severe injuries to federal OSHA within 24 hours of the incident.  Employers also are obligated to report fatalities, which are not included on the SIR Dashboard.  The incidents covered by the SIR dashboard can be analyzed by sorting through its various categories including: year, NAICS code, state, establishment name, event or exposure, source, nature, and body part.  State plan states also have severe reporting requirements, some with shorter time frames; but, state plan state data is not included in the SIR Dashboard.

OSHA’s press release encourages ”workers and employers to use the dashboard to learn how severe injuries happen in their industries.”  Certainly, the recent data can be used to evaluate emerging or current trends.  Not all uses of this data will be so benign.  The SIR Dashboard now places the power of easily sortable and visual data regarding such injuries at the hands of the public, including plaintiffs’ attorneys and other advocates who will seek to use it to their advantage.  This data also may inaccurately characterize some employers as lacking safety focus, which could be impactful for current and prospective customers.  The factors that cause or contribute to a severe injury are not always in the control of the employer.  Even the most safety conscious employers occasionally have an employee who experiences a severe injury. 

The emergence of the SIR Dashboard should encourage employers to review their severe injury reporting obligations to make certain that they are compliant (are not under-reporting) and also that they are aware of exceptions to the reporting obligations, so they are not over-reporting.  For example, injuries that would otherwise constitute reportable “severe injuries,” but result from a motor vehicle accident on a public street or highway, or on commercial or public transportation, are not reportable.  As another example, hospitalizations for diagnostic testing or observation only are not reportable.  Further, employers should take care to carefully review the information that they are providing to OSHA for factual accuracy.  Although severe injuries can be reported by calling the OSHA office nearest to the incident or using OSHA’s toll-free telephone number, employers should consider whether electronic submission via the agency’s Serious Event Online Reporting Form may be the best option in order to ensure an accurate written record of the information provided.  Finally, all employers who have severe injuries on the SIR Dashboard should review the information to ensure accuracy