In recent years, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has dramatically increased rulemaking that has impacted the roofing industry. The latest rule requires the public disclosure of workplace injuries and illnesses in an effort to improve tracking efforts and transparency in roofing and other industries. While those are worthy endeavors, this final rule regarding the digital reporting of injuries and illness is, sadly, yet another example of OSHA leadership enacting a final rule without first understanding the real-world implications that the rule will have on the construction industry — roofing in particular.
The new rule, which goes into effect Aug. 10, requires employers in high-hazard industries such as roofing to send OSHA injury and illness data contained on the OSHA 300 logs. OSHA will then post this information for public consumption on its website. Data submissions are slated to start in 2017.