On June 30th, GCCA joined with members of the Coalition for Workplace Safety (CWS) in submitting comments in response to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (“OSHA”) Proposed Rule, Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses. OSHA’s proposal would mandate electronic submission of employer summary data and individual employee injury and illness data on a much larger scale than currently required. The coalitions comments stress that the electronic submission and public posting of this data serves only to put employers at risk for improper disclosure, mischaracterization of the data and release of sensitive employer as well as employee information. Smaller entities are particularly vulnerable to release of such information, where mischaracterization of data can irreparably harm their business and individual employee information may be easier to ascertain. As a result, OSHA’s plan to extend the requirements to smaller entities is particularly concerning. These risks are exacerbated by the duplicative recordkeeping that this iteration of OSHA’s rule would necessitate. Due to these concerns, the coalition comments call for OSHA to withdraw the proposed rule.
