Spring 2018 Regulatory/Deregulatory Agenda released
Posted May 11, 2018
On May 9, the White House Office of Management and Budget released the Spring 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. The Agenda provides a sneak peek into the federal government’s plans to create, revise, or withdraw regulations in the next year.
OSHA’s listings for upcoming rulemakings include:
| Rule | Rulemaking stage |
|---|---|
| Communication Tower Safety | Prerule |
| Emergency Response and Preparedness | Prerule |
| Lock-Out/Tag-Out Update | Prerule |
| Prevention of Workplace Violence in Health Care | Prerule |
| Crane Operator Qualification in Construction | Proposed rule |
| Rules of Agency Practice and Procedure Concerning OSHA Access to Employee Medical Records | Final rule |
Changes to electronic workplace injury and illness data reporting
According to the Agenda, OSHA plans to issue a proposed rule in July to revise the 2016 Improve Tracking of Workplace Injuries and Illnesses final rule to remove the requirement for employers with 250 or more employees to submit data from their OSHA 300 Logs and OSHA 301 Incident Reports. These employers would still be required to electronically submit their 300-A Summary data to OSHA.
Moreover, OSHA will ask for comments on the costs and benefits of adding the Employer Identification Number (EIN) to the data collection in an effort to streamline the injury and illness reporting process for employers. Including the EIN could make it easier to match data collected by OSHA to data collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII).
The Agenda item did not mention a reconsideration of the anti-retaliation provisions in the final rule, which prohibit employers from taking adverse action against employees who report a work-related injury or illness to their employer.
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