The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has revised the industrial classification index relating to partially exempt and nonexempt industries for recordkeeping purposes. I am a small business owner with fewer than 10 employees. Will I now have to maintain the Log 300?
Cal/OSHA has not yet determined whether it will adopt these changes for California employers. California maintains its own occupational safety and health program as permitted by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act. This requires California to enact safety and health regulations that are “at least as effective” as the federal counterpart standard. Because Cal/OSHA is still analyzing OSHA’s revisions at this time, we don’t know what if any changes will be made to California’s reporting procedures and requirements.
OSHA’s revision to the recordkeeping requirements did not alter the “10 or fewer employee” partial exemption, which California will also maintain. OSHA’s changes would also require current partially exempt industries to maintain the Log 300 and post a 300A summary annually.
Also not affected are businesses in certain low-hazard industries that have been exempted from routinely keeping the 300 log and associated documents.
Since 1982, this list has been made up of businesses in the retail trade; finance, insurance and real estate; and the services industry if the three-year average lost workday case rate for their major industry group was 75% or less of the overall three-year average of the lost workday case rate for private industry.
Low-Hazard Industries
The revised recordkeeping regulation provides an updated list of low-hazard industries that are exempt from routinely keeping injury and illness records.
The new list of exempt industries is now classified by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), which is the standard used by federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy. The list previously used the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.
Revised Lists
Lists of both the partially exempt businesses and the establishments that are required to keep records have been revised and should be reviewed to determine if your status has changed.
For example, automobile dealers, NAICS Code 4411 (old SIC Code 551) are now required to keep records; and pipeline transportation of crude oil is now partially exempt.
Also, museums (SIC 841), NAICS Code 7121, was a partially exempt category before and now museums are required to keep records.
The list for partially exempt NAICS codes can be found at here.
The Labor Law Helpline is a service to California Chamber of Commerce preferred and executive members. For expert explanations of labor laws and Cal/OSHA regulations, not legal counsel for specific situations, call (800) 348-2262 or submit your question at www.hrcalifornia.com.
