A small employer exception helps protect small companies (fewer than 50 employees) from bankruptcy by allowing the $25,000 fine to be broken up into five annual $5,000 installments as long as the violation is not deemed to be willful or repeated. The state labor and industry commissioner can elect to waive the fine each year after the first if the employer is not cited for any more violations. Businesses will be exempt from such fines if the owner or an employee with a controlling interest in the company is the one who dies. Separate provisions of the law lengthen employee notice requirements by requiring employers to post notices of a citation at or near the place where a violation occurred for 20 days. Previous law required 15 days. RECORDKEEPING Under OSHA’s recordkeeping regulation, certain covered employers are required to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illness using OSHA 300 log. This information is important to employers, workers and OSHA in evaluating the safety of a workplace, understanding industry hazards, and implementing worker protections to reduce or eliminate hazards. A revised rule updates the list of industries that are exempt from the requirement to routinely keep OSHA injury and illness records due to relatively low occupational injury and illness rates. These changes to OSHA’s injury reporting rule became effective at the federal level January 1, 2015. Minnesota OSHSA adopted the new injury reporting requirements March 16, 2015, with an effective date of October 1, 2015. Changes to OSHA’s recordkeeping requirements (for low-hazard industries) were not adopted by Minnesota OSHA, which is consistent with past requirements in Minnesota. Further information is available at on the MNOSHA Compliance: Standards and Regulations or at the federal OSHA Injury and Illness Recordkeeping and Reporting Requirements. REPORTING SEVERE INJURY AND WORK-RELATED FATALITIES Employers must report work-related fatalities that result in the death of at least one employee, or incidents that result in the in-patient hospitalization of at least three employees, to Minnesota OSHA within eight hours after the death or hospitalization. Such a report must be made orally, in person or by telephone, to one of the area offices listed in the Resource Directory section of this Guide. After normal business hours, the report can be made by telephoning 800-321-6742. Severe on-the-job injuries that do not result in death but require hospitalization must be reported within 24 hours. Such reports must be filed regardless of the size of the business.
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