1.1 Who keeps records — and who still has to call OSHA

1 Two exemptions, and they work differently

Part 1904 has exactly two partial exemptions, and they are not alternatives — you can qualify for either one.

The first is size, in 29 CFR 1904.1(a)(1): if your company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep OSHA injury and illness records. Read the two qualifiers carefully. It is at all times, so peak employment decides it — nine people in January and fourteen in July means you keep records for the whole year. And it is measured across the entire company, not per location: 1904.1(b)(1) says so directly.

The second is industry, in 1904.2(a)(1): if a business establishment is classified in one of the industry groups listed in appendix A to subpart B, it does not need to keep the records. This one works the opposite way round — 1904.2(b)(1) applies it per establishment. A company can have one exempt office and one non-exempt plant, and the plant keeps a log while the office does not.

2 The word that does all the work: partial

Both exemptions are described in the regulation as partial, and both sections spell out what survives them in the very same paragraph. 1904.1(a)(1) ends: “However, as required by § 1904.39, all employers covered by the OSH Act must report to OSHA any work-related incident that results in a fatality, the in-patient hospitalization of one or more employees, an employee amputation, or an employee loss of an eye.” 1904.2(a)(1) says the same thing about the industry exemption.

So a five-person roofing company with no 300 Log still has eight hours to report a fatality and twenty-four hours to report a hospital admission, an amputation or a lost eye. There is also a second survival: OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics can tell you in writing to keep records anyway, for a survey or a data collection, under 1904.41 or 1904.42.

3 Who counts as your employee

The log covers your own employees, and — this is where most disputes start — the workers you supervise day to day even when someone else pays them. OSHA's position on temporary workers is that the host employer generally records the case for a temporary worker under its day-to-day supervision, because the host controls the hazard and the working conditions. The staffing agency and the host should agree which of them records, in writing, before anyone is hurt.

Hours matter here as much as cases. If a temporary worker's injury goes on your log, that worker's hours belong in your denominator. Counting the case and not the hours inflates your rate; counting the hours and not the case deflates it. Do both or neither.

4 What the records are actually for

It is easy to treat the log as a tax return — a form filed to keep someone off your back. Part 1904 is not written that way. The records exist so that the employer can see its own pattern, so that employees can see it too, and so that national statistics and inspection targeting have something real to work with.

That third use is not abstract. OSHA's Site-Specific Targeting program builds its general industry inspection lists from the data establishments submit electronically, and one of its four selection criteria is a random sample of establishments reporting low rates, specifically to verify accuracy. A log that looks too good is a log that invites a visit.

5 Where this course goes from here

1. 1
   Part 1 — decide whether a case is recordable, and how it is classified
2. 2
   Part 2 — put it on the right form, in the right column, by the right date
3. 3
   Part 3 — turn the log into rates, and compare them honestly
4. 4
   Part 4 — investigate what happened without stopping at the person
5. 5
   Part 5 — build the inspections, programs and reporting culture underneath it

Everything is cited to a paragraph. You do not need to memorize the numbers, but you do need to be able to find them: a recordability decision you cannot show in the text is a decision you will lose.

6 One more definition before we start

Part 1904 uses establishment constantly, and it does not mean company. 1904.46 defines it as a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. That is why 1904.30(a) requires a separate 300 Log for each establishment expected to operate for a year or longer, and why a company-wide rate compared against an establishment-level benchmark compares nothing at all.

Construction is the awkward case, and 1904.46 handles it explicitly: where employees do not work at a single physical location — construction, transportation, utilities and similar operations — the establishment is “represented by main or branch offices, terminals, stations, etc. that either supervise such activities or are the base from which personnel carry out these activities.” The jobsite is not the establishment; the office or yard that runs it is. 1904.30(b)(1) then lets you group establishments that will exist for less than a year onto a single log, or onto logs by division or region. Pick a convention, write it down and keep it — the value of a multi-year rate is in the consistency.