2.1 The 300 Log, column by column

1 Five steps, thirteen columns

Column F is the one that decides whether the log is any use a year later. “Back injury” tells you nothing. The form's own example shows the standard: “Second degree burns on right forearm from acetylene torch.” Injury, body part, and the thing that caused it — three elements, one line. Feel free to use two lines for a single case; the instructions say so.

2 The seven-day clock, and what starts it

1904.29(b)(3) gives you seven calendar days to enter a recordable case on the 300 Log and on the 301 Incident Report. The clock starts when you receive the information that a recordable injury or illness has occurred — not on the date of the injury, and not when the claim is accepted.

That distinction has a consequence worth building a habit around. A case that surfaces three weeks after the event — an employee who finally reports a wrist problem, or a clinic note that arrives late — starts its seven days on the day you learn about it. The date in column D is still the date of injury or onset.

3 One log per establishment

1904.30(a) requires a separate 300 Log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer. 1904.46 defines an establishment as a single physical location where business is conducted — and, for work that does not happen at a single location such as construction, transportation and utilities, as the main or branch office, terminal or station that supervises the activity or is the base from which personnel work.

Short-term establishments are handled in 1904.30(b)(1): you still keep records, but you may put them all on one log, or on logs covering short-term establishments by division or by region. The choice is yours; the consistency is not optional, because next year's rate comparison depends on it.

4 Keeping it on a computer, and keeping it correct

1904.29(b)(5) permits electronic recordkeeping, on one condition: the computer system must be able to produce equivalent forms when they are needed — which in practice means when an employee asks for a copy by the end of the next business day, or when a compliance officer asks on site.

Correcting the log is not an erasure exercise. 1904.33(b)(1) tells you to keep stored logs updated for five years: add newly discovered recordable cases, and where the description or the outcome of a case changes, “remove or line out the original entry and enter the new information.” A case that was column J in February and column I in April is lined out and re-entered, not quietly overwritten. The history is part of the record.

5 Writing column F so it is worth reading

1. 1
   Name the injury or illness, not the incident: "laceration", "fracture", "second degree burn", "contact dermatitis".
2. 2
   Name the part of the body, with a side: "left index finger", not "hand".
3. 3
   Name the object or substance that directly did the harm: "utility knife", "acetylene torch", "sodium hydroxide 30%".
4. 4
   Leave out the story, the blame and any opinion. The story belongs on the 301 and the investigation report.

Done this way, a year of column F is a hazard analysis you already own. Twelve lacerations to left hands from utility knives is a finding; twelve lines saying “hand injury” is filing.

6 What you do not do with the log

You do not post it. The instructions on the form are explicit: “You don't post the Log. You post only the Summary at the end of the year.” The 300A carries totals; the 300 Log carries names, and names are covered by the access rules of 1904.35 and the privacy case rules of 1904.29, which the next two chapters cover.

And you do not use it as a scoreboard. The moment a supervisor's bonus depends on how few lines appear on it, it stops describing the workplace and starts describing the incentive. That is not a moral point: OSHA's own guidance treats incentive schemes that discourage reporting as a problem in their own right, and it is covered in Part 5.