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Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 28 / Tuesday, February 11, 1997 / Rules and Regulations6441collection initiatives, for a total burdenestimate of 35,000 hours, or $486,500.OSHA anticipates that future datacollection initiatives conducted undersection 1904.17 will impose similarburdens—approximately 30 minutes ofclerical time per respondent—and willtherefore not impose a substantialburden on any employer.The record contains many commentsabout the burden of recordingemployment and hours workedinformation on the OSHA Log—somefavorable but more unfavorable.However, the negative commentersprovided no empirical basis by whichtheir burden claims could be quantified.In the absence of such data, OSHAturned to the long experience BLS hasaccumulated while collecting thesesame types of data for statisticalpurposes. For over 25 years, until theBLS injury and illness survey wasrevised to collect additional data fromemployers, the BLS collected dataidentical to the data collected by OSHAin 1996. BLS estimated that completionof its pre-1992 surveys required one halfhour of time. A 1992 BLS test conductedon 92 respondents completing only part1 of the BLS survey form (equivalent tothe OSHA form) measured the averagerespondents completion time at 30.55minutes.The occupational injury and illnessinformation from the OSHA records isrequired by regulation and is easilytransferred to the OSHA survey form.The information on employment andhours worked by employees is generallyeasy to obtain from payroll systems foremployees who are paid on an hourlybasis, and can be estimated for salariedemployees. The survey forms used byOSHA provide the employer withinstructions and worksheets to make thecalculations as easy as possible. In manycases, the employment and hoursworked data are already being reportedto unemployment insurance andworkers’ compensation agencies andcan easily be transferred to the OSHAsurvey form.As discussed above, OSHA hasconcluded that promulgation of thisregulation, in and of itself, imposes fewif any economic costs on potentiallyaffected firms. Individual datacollections conducted under thisregulation will be subject to OMBreview under the procedures specifiedby the Paperwork Reduction Act of1995. Employers will thus have anopportunity to comment on any burdensimposed by such data collections whenthey are carried out in the future.OSHA has determined that this rule isa significant regulatory action as definedby 3(f)(4) of E.O. 12866. This provisionof the E.O. covers a regulatory actionthat is likely to result in a rule that may:(4) Raise novel legal or policy issuesarising out of legal mandates, thePresident’s priorities, or the principlesset forth in the Executive Order.V. Regulatory Flexibility ActOSHA is required by the RegulatoryFlexibility Act, as amended in 1996, toassess whether its regulations will havea significant impact on a substantialnumber of small entities. As explainedin the Economic Analysis section of thispreamble, above, this regulation (section1904.17, Annual OSHA Injury andIllness Survey of Ten or MoreEmployers) imposes few, if any costs onaffected employers, although future datacollection efforts conducted under thisregulation may impose minimal costand paperwork burdens on thoseemployers affected by a given datacollection effort. OSHA will carefullyassess the impacts of individual datacollections on employers, includingsmall employers, at the time such effortsare initiated. Pursuant to the RegulatoryFlexibility Act, OSHA thus certifies thatsection 1904.17 will not have asignificant impact on a substantialnumber of small entities.VI. Environmental ImpactsThe provisions of this final regulationhave been reviewed in accordance withthe requirements of the NationalEnvironmental Policy Act (NEPA) of1969 (42 U.S.C. 432, et seq.), theCouncil on Environmental Quality(CEQ) NEPA regulations [40 CFR part1500], and OSHA’s DOL Procedures [29CFR part 11]. As a result of this review,OSHA has determined that this finalrule will have no significant effect onair, water, or soil quality, plant oranimal life, use of land, or other aspectsof the environment.VII. FederalismThis rule has been reviewed inaccordance with Executive Order 12612(52 FR 41685), regarding Federalism.Because this rulemaking action involvesa ‘‘regulation’’ issued under § 8 of theOSH Act, and not a ‘‘standard’’ issuedunder § 6 of the Act, the rule does notpreempt State law, see 29 U.S.C. 667 (a).VIII. State PlansThe 25 States and territories withtheir own OSHA approved occupationalsafety and health plans are: Alaska,Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana,Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan,Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, NorthCarolina, Oregon, Puerto Rico, SouthCarolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont,Virginia, Virgin Islands, Washington,and Wyoming; Connecticut and NewYork have state plans covering state andlocal Government employees only.Section 18(c)(7) of the OSH Actrequires employers in state plan statesto ‘‘make reports to the Secretary in thesame manner and to the same extent asif the plan were not in effect.’’ Today’samendment to 29 CFR part 1904 relatesto periodic data surveys which federalOSHA will conduct in all states,including those which administerapproved state plans; accordingly, stateswith state plans are not required toadopt a comparable regulation. In stateplan states, the data collected by thefederal OSHA survey will be sharedwith the states for use in administeringtheir plans, and also provide relevantinformation for OSHA’s use inmonitoring the state plan as required bysection 18(f). Because OSHA’snationwide data survey is not an issuecurrently addressed by any of the stateplans, OSHA’s authority to implementthe survey is not affected either byoperational agreements with state planstates or by the granting of finalapproval under section 18(e). OSHA’sauthority under the Act, to takeappropriate enforcement action whennecessary to compel responses to thesurvey and to assure the accuracy of thedata submitted by employers, will beexercised in consultation with the statein state plan states. The states may alsoexercise such authority under state lawor regulation.IX. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995This final regulation containsinformation collection requirements. Asrequired by the Paperwork ReductionAct of 1995, the U.S. Department ofLabor has submitted a copy of thesesections to OMB for its review. (44U.S.C. 3501 et seq., and 5 CFR part1320.Separately, the Department of Laborhas received renewed approval for theAnnual Survey Form under thePaperwork Reduction Act (OMB number1218–0209)List of Subjects in 29 CFR Part 1904Reports by employers, occupationalinjuries and illnesses, OccupationalSafety and Health, Occupational Safetyand Health Administration,Recordkeeping, Reporting.AuthorityThis document was prepared underthe direction of Greg Watchman, ActingAssistant Secretary of Labor forOccupational Safety and Health, U.S.Department of Labor, 200 ConstitutionAvenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210.