In addition, all employers with 20 to 249 employees in industries that OSHA considers to be highly hazardous must also provide the illness and injury information in their OSHA 300A summary reports electronically. Employers in construction, manufacturing, furniture stores, grocery stores, hospitals, nursing homes, museums and amusement parks are among those affected by the requirement. 

Before the new requirements took effect, employers had to prepare their OSHA logs, post them at the workplace for employees and unions to examine and retain them in HR files for five years. Otherwise, the information was not shared with OSHA unless there was an active inspection or if they were asked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics or OSHA to participate in annual injury surveys, according to Eric Conn, an attorney with Conn Maciel Carey in Washington, D.C. who is cited in the report. 

Conn says that a randomly selected, rotating set of employers participated in the surveys, and even if employers did have to participate, historically they shared only their 300A forms. Under the electronic rule, however, employers must show their data every year, unless the requirements are rescinded. 

Despite skittish employers now reluctant to submit information, the article quotes Deborah Berkowitz, a senior fellow with the National Employment Law Project in Washington, D.C., and former OSHA chief of staff in the Obama administration, saying, "The idea that OSHA should not have any of this information is ridiculous." Such injury and illness information is essential for the agency to know where its resources are best allocated, she adds.