California: Governor Signs Bill to Monitor Federal Changes to OSHA Form 300 and 301 Requirement and to Create State Version of Volks Rule
On September 19, 2018 California’s Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2334(Thurmond), which requires Cal/OSHA to monitor federal electronic recordkeeping requirements and, depending on federal action, to convene an advisory committee to evaluate how to move forward with a state-law version of the proposed recordkeeping requirements. The law also creates a state version of the Volks Rule. This law goes into effect on January 1, 2019.
The law was passed in response to federal OSHA’s July 30, 2018 suspension of the requirement that employers with employees of 250 or more electronically submit OSHA Forms 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses) and 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report). Federal OSHA then proposed eliminating the requirement that both forms be submitted, but maintained the submission requirement for Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses).
The Volks Rule was adopted in December 2016 in response to a DC Circuit Court case finding that federal OSHA could not cite employers for failing to record workplace injuries or illnesses if that violation took place more than six months before the citation was issued. The Volks rule explicitly imposed on employers a duty to record an injury or illness for the full five-year record retention period. The rule was then rescinded in 2017 via the Congressional Review Act. Shortly after the DC Circuit Court case, the Cal/OSHA Appeals Board announced in a decision that it would also follow the DC Circuit Court interpretation and bar any citation for failure to report an injury which occurred more than 6 months after the violation. In this instance, California has decided to reimpose the requirement that employers record an injury or illness for the full five-year record retention period.
Source:
Governor Signs Bill to Monitor Federal Changes to OSHA Form 300 and 301 Requirement and to Create State Version of Volks Rule, Assembly Bill No. 2334, September 19, 2018.
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