OSHA Recordkeeping Handbook - Msabc.net

considered work-related. If an employee working athome is electrocuted because of faulty home wiring,the injury would not be considered work-related….…Injuries and illnesses occurring while theemployee is working for pay or compensation athome should be treated like injuries and illnessessustained by employees while traveling on business.The relevant question is whether or not the injury orillness is work-related, not whether there is some elementof employer control. The mere recording ofthese injuries and illnesses as work-related casesdoes not place the employer in the role of insuringthe safety of the home environment….…OSHA has recently issued a compliance directive(CPL 2-0.125)….That document clarifies thatOSHA will not conduct inspections of home officesand does not hold employers liable for employees’home offices. The compliance directive also notesthat employers required by the recordkeeping rule tokeep records “will continue to be responsible forkeeping such records, regardless of whether theinjuries occur in the factory, in a home office, or elsewhere,as long as they are work-related, and meetthe recordability criteria of 29 CFR Part 1904.”With more employees working at home undervarious telecommuting and flexible workplacearrangements, OSHA believes that it is important torecord injuries and illnesses attributable to worktasks performed at home. If these cases are notrecorded, the Nation’s injury and illness statisticscould be skewed. For example, placing such anexclusion in the final rule would make it difficult todetermine if a decline in the overall number or rate ofoccupational injuries and illnesses is attributable to atrend toward working at home or to a change in theNation’s actual injury and illness experience. Further,excluding these work-related injuries and illnessesfrom the recordkeeping system could potentiallyobscure previously unidentified causal connectionsbetween events or exposures in the work environmentand these incidents. OSHA is unwilling to adoptan exception that would have these potentialeffects….FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: Section 1904.5 (OSHA Instruction, CPL 2-0.135, Chap. 5)Section 1904.5 Determination of work-relatednessQuestion 5-1. If a maintenance employee is cleaningthe parking lot or an access road and is injured as aresult, is the case work-related?Yes, the case is work-related because the employee isinjured as a result of conducting company businessin the work environment. If the injury meets the generalrecording criteria of Section 1904.7 (death, daysaway, etc.), the case must be recorded.Question 5-2. Are cases of workplace violence consideredwork-related under the new Recordkeepingrule?The Recordkeeping rule contains no general exception,for purposes of determining work-relationship,for cases involving acts of violence in the work environment.However, some cases involving violent actsmight be included within one of the exceptions listedin section 1904.5(b)(2). For example, if an employeearrives at work early to use a company conferenceroom for a civic club meeting and is injured by someviolent act, the case would not be work-related underthe exception in section 1904.5(b)(2)(v).Question 5-3. What activities are considered “personalgrooming” for purposes of the exception to thegeographic presumption of work-relatedness insection 1904.5(b)(2)(vi)?Personal grooming activities are activities directlyrelated to personal hygiene, such as combing anddrying hair, brushing teeth, clipping fingernails andthe like. Bathing or showering at the workplace whennecessary because of an exposure to a substance atwork is not within the personal grooming exceptionin section 1904.5(b)(2)(vi). Thus, if an employee slipsand falls while showering at work to remove a contaminantto which he has been exposed at work, andsustains an injury that meets one of the generalrecording criteria listed in section 1904.7(b)(1), thecase is recordable.Question 5-4. What are “assigned working hours”for purposes of the exception to the geographic presumptionin section 1904.5(b)(2)(v)?“Assigned working hours,” for purposes of section1904.5(b)(2)(v), means those hours the employee isactually expected to work, including overtime.Question 5-5. What are “personal tasks” for purposesof the exception to the geographic presumption insection 1904.5(b)(2)(v)?§1904.5OSHA RECORDKEEPINGHANDBOOK25