Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68793

from active supervision shall also be 

based on the concurrence of two 

Commissioners. All other decisions, 

including decisions on revocation and 

reparole made pursuant to § 2.105(c), 

shall be based on the vote of one 

Commissioner, except as otherwise 

provided in this subpart.

■ 3. Amend § 2.105 by revising the first 

sentence of paragraph (c) and adding 

paragraph (g). The revised and added 

text reads as follows:

§ 2.105 Revocation decisions.

* * * * *

(c) Decisions under this section shall 

be made by one Commissioner, except 

that a decision to override an examiner 

panel recommendation shall require the 

concurrence of two Commissioners. 

***

* * * * *

(g) A parolee may appeal a decision 

made under this section to revoke 

parole, to grant or deny reparole, or to 

modify the conditions of release. The 

provisions of § 2.26 on the time limits 

for filing and deciding the appeal, the 

grounds for appeal, the format of the 

appeal, the limits regarding the 

submission of exhibits, and voting 

requirements apply to an appeal 

submitted under this paragraph.

Dated: November 18, 2004. 

Edward F. Reilly, Jr., 

Chairman, U.S. Parole Commission.

[FR Doc. 04–26188 Filed 11–24–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4410–31–U

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration 

29 CFR Part 1960

Basic Program Elements for Federal 

Employee Occupational Safety and 

Health Programs and Related Matters; 

Subpart I for Recordkeeping and 

Reporting Requirements

AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration (OSHA), U.S. 

Department of Labor.

ACTION: Final rule.

SUMMARY: The Occupational Safety and 

Health Administration (OSHA) is 

issuing a final rule amending the 

occupational injury and illness 

recording and reporting requirements 

applicable to Federal agencies, 

including the forms used by Federal 

agencies to record those injuries and 

illnesses. The final rule will make the 

Federal sector’s recordkeeping and 

reporting requirements essentially 

identical to the private sector by 

adopting applicable OSHA 

recordkeeping provisions as 

requirements for Federal agencies. In 

addition to eliminating the problems in 

the existing system whereby injuries 

and illnesses suffered by some groups of 

employees, such as contract employees, 

are not recorded, this final rule will 

produce more useful injury and illness 

records, collect better information about 

the incidence of occupational injuries 

and illnesses at the establishment level, 

create reporting and recording criteria 

that are consistent among Federal 

agencies, enable injury and illness 

comparisons between the Federal and 

private sectors, and promote improved 

employee awareness and involvement 

in the recording and reporting of jobrelated injuries and illnesses. The final 

rule will also assist in achieving the 

stated goal in Executive Order 12196 

that Federal agencies comply with all 

OSHA standards, and generally, assure 

worker protection in a manner 

comparable to the private sector. This 

final rule applies to all Federal agencies 

of the Executive Branch subject to 

Executive Order 12196, and does not 

apply to military personnel and 

uniquely military equipment, systems, 

and operations. 

The requirements of this final rule do 

not diminish or modify in any way a 

Federal Agency’s responsibility to 

report or record injuries and illnesses as 

required by the Office of Workers’

Compensation Programs under the 

Federal Employees’ Compensation Act 

(FECA).

DATES: This final rule becomes effective 

January 1, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Acting Director, Thomas K. Marple, 

Office of Federal Agency Programs, 

Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration, U.S. Department of 

Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., 

Room N–3622, Washington, DC 20210, 

Telephone 202–693–2122.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Statutory Background 

Section 19 of the Occupational Safety 

and Health Act (the ‘‘OSH Act’’) (29 

U.S.C. 668) includes provisions to 

ensure safe and healthful working 

conditions for Federal sector employees. 

Under that section, each Federal agency 

is responsible for establishing and 

maintaining an effective and 

comprehensive occupational safety and 

health program consistent with the 

standards promulgated by OSHA under 

Section 6 of the OSH Act. Executive 

Order 12196, Occupational Safety and 

Health Programs for Federal Employees, 

issued February 26, 1980, prescribes 

additional responsibilities for the heads 

of Federal agencies, the Secretary of 

Labor, and the General Services 

Administrator. Among other things, the 

Secretary of Labor, through OSHA, is 

required to issue basic program 

elements with which the heads of 

agencies must operate their safety and 

health programs. These basic program 

elements are set forth at 29 CFR Part 

1960. Section 19 of the OSH Act, the 

Executive Order, and the basic program 

elements under 29 CFR Part 1960 apply 

to all agencies of the Executive Branch 

except military personnel and uniquely 

military equipment, systems, and 

operations. This final rule will amend 

the basic program elements under 29 

CFR Part 1960, Subpart I, to make 

pertinent private sector recordkeeping 

requirements under 29 CFR Part 1904 

applicable to all Executive Branch 

Federal agencies. By amendment to the 

OSH Act on September 28, 1998 

(through the Postal Employees’ Safety 

Enhancement Act), the U.S. Postal 

Service is already complying with the 

recordkeeping requirements under Part 

1904. 

Pursuant to Section 19(a) of the OSH 

Act, each head of a Federal agency is 

responsible for keeping adequate 

records of all occupational injuries and 

illnesses. Section 1–401(d) of the 

Executive Order provides the Secretary 

of Labor with the authority to prescribe 

recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements for Federal agencies. 

Under 29 CFR Part 1960, Subpart I, each 

Federal agency is currently responsible 

for keeping records of all occupational 

injuries and illnesses. Section 19 of the 

OSH Act also provides the Secretary of 

Labor with access to occupational injury 

and illness records and reports kept and 

filed by Federal agencies ‘‘unless those 

records and reports are specifically 

required by Executive Order to be kept 

secret in the interest of the national 

defense or foreign policy, in which case 

the Secretary of Labor shall have access 

to such information as will not 

jeopardize national defense or foreign 

policy.’’

In its role as the lead Agency for 

implementing and reviewing 

compliance with Executive Order 12196 

and the basic program elements set forth 

at 29 CFR Part 1960, OSHA requires 

Federal agencies to comply with all 

occupational safety and health 

standards, and generally, to assume 

responsibility for worker protection in a 

manner comparable to private 

employers. The OSH Act authorizes the 

Secretary of Labor to issue two types of 

final rules, ‘‘standards’’ and 

68794 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

1CA–1, Notice of Traumatic Injury and Claim for 

Continuation of Pay/Compensation; CA–2 , Notice 

of Occupational Disease and Claim for 

Compensation; CA–6, Official Superior’s Report of 

Employee’s Death.

‘‘regulations.’’ Occupational safety and 

health standards issued pursuant to 

Section 6 of the Act specify the 

measures to be taken to remedy 

occupational hazards. 29 U.S.C. 652(8), 

655. OSHA regulations, issued pursuant 

to general rulemaking authority found, 

inter alia, under Section 8 of the Act, are 

the means to effectuate other statutory 

purposes, including the collection and 

dissemination of records on 

occupational injuries and illnesses. 29 

U.S.C. 657(c)(2). Because 29 CFR Part 

1904, which sets forth occupational 

injury and illness recordkeeping 

requirements for the private sector, was 

promulgated pursuant to Section 8 of 

the OSH Act, and thus is technically a 

‘‘regulation’’ and not a ‘‘standard,’’

Federal agencies are currently not 

required to comply with the provisions 

in Part 1904. Therefore, OSHA is 

amending the basic program elements at 

29 CFR Part 1960, Subpart I, to make 

pertinent private sector recordkeeping 

and reporting requirements under Part 

1904 applicable to the Federal sector. 

II. Functions of the Recordkeeping 

System 

In general, recording incidents of 

occupational deaths, injuries, and 

illnesses have several distinct functions 

or uses for employers, employees, and 

OSHA. One is to provide information to 

employers about hazards in their 

workplaces that are injuring or making 

their employees ill. Employers and 

employees can then use the information 

to implement safety and health 

programs at individual workplaces. 

Analysis of injury and illness data is a 

widely recognized method for 

discovering workplace safety and health 

problems and for tracking progress in 

solving those problems.

Federal employees who are better 

informed about the hazards they face are 

more likely to follow safe work practices 

and to report workplace hazards to their 

Federal agency safety and health 

personnel. Such employees may then 

participate in identifying and 

controlling those hazards, thus 

improving the overall level of safety and 

health in the workplace. 

The records are an important source 

of information for Federal agency safety 

and health staff, as well as for OSHA’s 

oversight function. Federal agency 

safety and health personnel use the data 

to identify the most dangerous 

worksites, as well as during inspections 

to help direct their efforts to the hazards 

in the workplace that are hurting 

workers. Injury and illness information 

is used to develop statistics that assist 

OSHA (through its oversight function) 

in identifying the scope of occupational 

safety and health problems and decide 

whether regulatory intervention, 

compliance assistance, or other 

measures are warranted. These data also 

provide the outcome measures used to 

determine the effectiveness of Federal 

agency safety and health programs. 

Section 8 of the OSH Act authorizes 

the Secretary of Labor to issue 

regulations she determines to be 

necessary to carry out her statutory 

functions, including regulations 

requiring employers to record and 

report work-related deaths and nonminor injuries and illnesses. OSHA’s 

regulations under 29 CFR Part 1904 

include requirements for recording, 

maintaining, posting, retaining, and 

reporting occupational injury and 

illness information in the private sector. 

Employers must record each fatality, 

injury, and illness that is work related, 

is a new case, and meets one or more 

of the general recording criteria in 

§ 1904.7, or specific cases as described 

under § 1904.8 through § 1904.12. 

Under Part 1904, recordable workrelated injuries and illnesses are those 

that result in one or more of the 

following: death, days away from work, 

restricted work or transfer to another 

job, medical treatment beyond first aid, 

loss of consciousness, or diagnosis of a 

significant injury or illness. Injuries 

include cases such as, but not limited 

to, a cut, fracture, sprain, or amputation. 

Illnesses include both acute and chronic 

illnesses such as, but not limited to, a 

skin disease, respiratory disorder, or 

poisoning. 

Also under Part 1904, employers are 

required to let employees know how 

and when to report work-related injuries 

and illnesses. This means that the 

employer must set up a system for the 

employees to report work-related 

injuries and illnesses and instruct them 

on how to use it. Part 1904 does not 

specify how the employer must 

accomplish these objectives, so 

employers have flexibility to set up 

systems that are appropriate to their 

workplace. 

III. Overview of the Existing Federal 

Sector Recordkeeping System 

Under 29 CFR Part 1960, Subpart I, 

Federal agencies are required to collect 

occupational injury and illness data, 

analyze these data to identify unsafe 

and unhealthful working conditions, 

and establish program priorities based 

on their analyses. Under existing 

1960.67c, Federal agencies are required 

to record only injury and illness 

information that is reported to the Office 

of Workers’ Compensation Programs 

(OWCP) on forms CA–1, CA–2, or CA–

6.1 Under this system, injuries and 

illnesses are recordable only if a 

medical expense was incurred or 

expected, or if the employee was away 

from work or on leave without pay 

(LWOP) or continuation of pay (COP) as 

a result of the injury or illness.

OSHA uses injury and illness 

statistical data provided by OWCP to set 

program priorities, identify Federal 

worksites for OSHA oversight activity, 

and monitor agencies’ progress in 

reducing occupational injury and 

illness. Also, OSHA uses the injury and 

illness statistical data from OWCP to 

develop an annual report for the 

President on the status of Federal 

civilian employees’ safety and health.

Under the existing system, the records 

used by Federal agencies include the 

OSHA Federal Agency Log and 

Summary of Occupational Injuries and 

Illnesses, and the OSHA Form 101, 

Supplementary Record of Occupational 

Injuries and Illnesses. On the OSHA 

Federal Agency Log, agencies must 

include some brief descriptive 

information, and use a simple check-off 

procedure to maintain a running total of 

occupational injuries and illnesses for 

the year. OSHA Form 101 is used to 

provide supplementary information 

regarding each injury and illness 

entered on the log. Alternate forms, 

such as workers’ compensation forms, 

may be used if they contain all the 

information OSHA requires. 

Existing Part 1960, Subpart I, directs 

each Federal agency to complete an 

annual summary of occupational 

injuries and illnesses based on the 

OSHA Federal Agency Log. Agencies 

are also required to post a copy of the 

annual summaries for injuries and 

illnesses at each establishment. Under 

the existing system, the head of each 

Federal agency must ensure access to 

the injury and illness logs and annual 

summaries to Occupational Safety and 

Health Committees, employees, former 

employees, and employee 

representatives. 

IV. OSHA’s Reasons for Revising the 

Recordkeeping Rule for the Federal 

Sector 

A. The Need To Improve the Quality of 

the Federal Recordkeeping System 

OSHA’s revision, which essentially 

adopts applicable private sector 

recordkeeping requirements under Part 

1904, will increase the ability of Federal 

agency establishments to identify and 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68795

track occupational injury and illness 

trends, extend the injury and illness 

recordkeeping requirements to all 

civilian workers in the Executive 

Branch, eliminate the problems 

associated with non-existent injury and 

illness reporting for contract employees 

who are supervised on a daily basis by 

Federal workers, improve Federal 

agency and Federal employee awareness 

of the root causes of accidents in their 

workplace, create more consistent 

statistics from Federal agency to Federal 

agency, and resolve the problem of 

incompatibility of data between the 

private sector and Federal sector. 

Establishing Part 1904 recordkeeping 

requirements will also reduce reporting 

errors because Part 1904 is written in 

plain language, is more detail oriented, 

uses the question-and-answer format, 

minimizes ambiguity, eliminates 

recording of minor injuries and 

illnesses, and allows agencies flexibility 

to use computer programs to meet their 

OSHA recordkeeping obligations. 

From an administrative and 

management perspective, differences in 

Federal sector and private sector 

recordkeeping requirements are 

confusing to Federal agencies and 

OSHA personnel. Establishing one 

regulation for recordkeeping will 

standardize the requirements for both 

the Federal and private sectors. 

Standardizing recordkeeping 

requirements will allow for more 

accurate comparisons between Federal 

and private sector injury and illness 

experiences. Under the existing Part 

1960, Subpart I, recordkeeping system 

for Federal agencies, comparable data to 

show how Federal agencies compare 

statistically with the private sector 

injury and illness experiences are not 

available due to the differences in 

reporting and recording requirements. 

Therefore, OSHA has not been able to 

address the concerns raised by several 

organizations that monitor government 

activity, and respond to the perception 

that the Federal Government has a 

worse injury and illness experience than 

its private industry counterparts. 

For instance, from time to time certain 

advocacy groups have issued reports 

comparing some Federal agencies with 

the highest occupational injury or 

illness rates per 100 full-time workers 

with different sectors of private 

industry. These reports avowed that 

several Federal agencies had 

significantly higher occupational injury 

and illness rates than their private 

sector counterparts. While the reports 

intimated that an employee was more 

likely to be injured or become ill while 

working for a Federal agency than 

working for a number of high-risk 

private sector industries, the reports 

compared risks in different industries, 

and OSHA could not verify the injury 

and illness data reported. 

This is best shown in an example of 

injuries that are compensable but not 

recordable under 29 CFR Part 1904. 

Consider the case where a private sector 

employee falls on the job, notes pain in 

his or her shoulder, is sent for 

evaluation at a local emergency room, 

and following an examination and x-ray, 

is released back to work without 

restrictions, days away from work, or 

medical treatment beyond first aid. 

Under 29 CFR Part 1904, this case 

would not be recordable because it does 

not meet any of the recording 

requirements (evaluation and x-rays for 

diagnostic purposes are considered first 

aid under 29 CFR 1904.7(b)(5)(i)(A) & 

(B) and the case would not be 

recordable). However under the current 

Federal agency recordkeeping system, if 

the employee files for reimbursement of 

medical costs under FECA, a CA–1 must 

be submitted and the case would be 

recorded. 

Another reason for revising the 

occupational injury and illness 

recordkeeping system for the Federal 

sector is that under Part 1960, Subpart 

I, many groups of employees are not 

included in the recordkeeping process, 

including employees hired through the 

Non-Appropriated Funds 

Instrumentalities Act (NAFIA), 

Commissioned Officers of the Public 

Health Service, and contract employees 

working under the daily supervision of 

Federal personnel. Conversely, 

volunteers are covered under Part 1960 

through OWCP reporting requirements, 

which is not the case for the private 

sector under Part 1904. 

The existing Part 1960 also creates 

inconsistencies in recordkeeping among 

Federal establishments. FECA 

compensability covers injuries to 

employees that occur on the employer’s 

premises during work hours or in 

reasonable proximity to the work hours, 

and the incident is recorded if a CA 

form is submitted to OWCP because the 

incident results in a reimbursable 

medical expense to the employee. 

Establishments with in-house medical 

facilities or with contracts for medical 

services to treat their employees are 

likely to have fewer claims filed under 

FECA for medical reimbursement, and 

therefore are likely to have fewer 

incidents that are recordable. 

Establishments without in-house 

medical facilities or contracts for 

medical service would record employee 

injuries and illnesses that result in filing 

a CA form for any reimbursable medical 

expense(s). Federal agency 

establishments with in-house medical 

staff frequently do not record such 

events, while those establishments that 

rely on outside medical staff to treat 

their injured or ill employees would 

record such events. 

Another example of current 

inconsistencies in recordkeeping among 

Federal agencies lies with the U.S. 

Postal Service (USPS). As mentioned 

earlier, the U.S. Postal Service, which 

comprises approximately one-third of 

the Federal sector workforce in the 

Executive Branch, is already recording 

injuries and illnesses under Part 1904 

regulations, while the remaining twothirds of the Federal sector are recording 

under Part 1960. 

The existing Part 1960 system 

captures little data that are useful in 

identifying root causes of accidents, 

fails to adequately capture days away 

from work, fails completely to capture 

days of restricted activity or job transfer, 

and fails to capture important data 

related to bloodborne pathogens, such 

as needlesticks and other sharps 

injuries. 

Additional reasons for changing 

Federal agencies’ recordkeeping 

requirements to the Part 1904 system 

include: the OSHA 300 log more 

accurately reflects injuries and illnesses 

at a glance than does the existing 

Federal agency log; injuries and 

illnesses for all employees, including 

contract employees who are supervised 

by Federal employees on a daily basis 

and whose employers do not also 

record, will be covered; the calendar 

year reporting will be consistent with 

the recordkeeping practices in private 

industry; and, a unified tracking system 

will result for all workplace injuries and 

illnesses covered by OSHA.

OSHA’s Voluntary Protection Program 

(VPP) is a program that recognizes 

worksites with exemplary safety and 

health programs. In the VPP, 

management, labor, and OSHA establish 

cooperative relationships at workplaces 

that have implemented a comprehensive 

safety and health management program. 

OSHA’s experience indicates that when 

an employer commits to the VPP 

approach to safety and health 

management and completes the 

challenging VPP application process, 

the result includes a dramatic 

improvement in the organization’s 

safety and health performance. 

To qualify for VPP, an establishment 

must have comprehensive safety and 

health management programs that 

include effective injury, illness, and 

accident recordkeeping, as well as 

injury and illness lost time and total 

case rates below the national averages, 

as measured under Part 1904. As 

68796 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

Federal agencies participating in VPP 

are currently required to maintain 

records under two systems, the Federal 

sector has just over ten VPP sites 

(including a few in the USPS, as of 

December 31, 2003) compared to over 

1,000 in private industry. Adopting the 

Part 1904 recordkeeping system for the 

Federal sector will yield consistent 

injury and illness data, and would make 

participation in the VPP program much 

more attractive to Federal agencies. 

Standardizing the private and Federal 

sector recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements will lessen the 

administrative burden on OSHA when 

changes to the recordkeeping 

requirements need to be made, as well 

as streamline training efforts. If the 

recordkeeping systems remain separate, 

any changes made to the requirements 

in the private sector will not be 

applicable to the Federal sector, unless 

additional modifications to Part 1960, 

Subpart I, are made reflecting such 

changes. Requiring Federal agencies to 

comply with Part 1904 will largely 

eliminate this problem. Additionally, 

standardizing the private and Federal 

sector recordkeeping and reporting 

requirements will eliminate OSHA’s 

need to develop and present separate 

training, outreach, interpretations, etc. 

on both systems. 

B. Advantages for Adopting Applicable 

Part 1904 Requirements in Part 1960, 

Subpart I 

The advantages of improved 

recordkeeping fall into two groups. 

Improved recordkeeping will enhance 

the ability of Federal agencies and 

Federal employees to prevent 

occupational injuries and illnesses. 

Also, improved recordkeeping and 

reporting will increase the utility of 

injury and illness records for Federal 

agency safety and health staff as well as 

OSHA’s oversight function. 

(1) Enhanced Ability of Federal 

Agencies and Their Employees to 

Prevent Injuries and Illnesses. Collecting 

additional or improved information 

about events and exposures of injuries 

and illnesses on Form 301, including 

information on the location, the 

equipment, materials or chemicals being 

used, and the specific activity being 

performed, will increase the ability of 

Federal agencies and their employees to 

identify hazardous conditions and take 

remedial action to prevent future 

injuries and illnesses. Identifying the 

irritating substance that caused an 

employee to experience a recordable 

case of occupational dermatitis, for 

example, could prompt a Federal agency 

to re-examine available Material Safety 

Data Sheets to identify a non-irritating 

substitute material. On Form 301, 

details will be recorded in a logical 

sequence that will help structure the 

information and focus attention on 

problem processes and activities. Thus 

the establishment’s records of injuries 

and illnesses will provide management 

with an analytical tool that can be used 

to control or eliminate hazards. 

(2) Increased Utility of Data to Federal 

Agency Safety and Health Staff and 

OSHA. Improvements in the quality and 

usefulness of the records being kept by 

Federal agencies will enhance their 

capacity to: focus investigative efforts 

on the most significant hazards; identify 

types or patterns of injuries and 

illnesses whose investigation might lead 

to prevention efforts; and, set priorities 

among Federal agency establishments 

for inspection purposes. Federal 

agencies and their employees both stand 

to benefit from the more effective use of 

Agency resources. The enhanced ability 

of safety and health personnel to 

identify patterns of injuries will enable 

them to focus on the more serious 

hazards. 

Identifying such patterns will also 

increase the ability of Federal agencies 

to control these hazards and prevent 

other similar injuries. To the extent that 

Federal agencies take advantage of this 

information, the task of OSHA’s 

oversight function will be facilitated. 

Federal employees clearly will also 

benefit from these reductions in 

injuries. 

Specific Advantages of the Final Rule 

(1) Forms Simplification and 

Definitions. Simplifying the forms used 

by Federal agencies will result in 

improved information. The same is true 

of definitional changes, such as 

counting lost workdays or restricted 

workdays as calendar days and capping 

the count at 180 days. Easier recording 

of data will make records of individual 

cases more complete and consistent. By 

using simplified recording procedures, 

we hope to encourage more complete 

recording of job-related injuries and 

illnesses. This process is illustrated by 

the change from days away from work 

to calendar days. This change represents 

an explicit decision to shift the 

emphasis from lost productivity to the 

seriousness of the injury or illness. 

Calendar days are a more accurate and 

consistent reflection of seriousness than 

are lost scheduled workdays. They are 

also directly comparable across 

establishments and industries while 

days away from work are not. Thus, 

calendar days produce more useful 

information for the purpose of assessing 

patterns of injuries and illnesses. This 

variable is also generally much simpler 

to determine and record, so that the 

information is more likely to be 

complete and accurate. This 

combination of attributes, OSHA 

believes, will substantially improve the 

quality of the information available for 

analysis and enhance the resulting 

actions taken to reduce job-related 

injuries and illnesses.

(2) Recordable Injuries and Illnesses.

The changes in defining injuries and 

illnesses that are recordable have 

several advantages. In general, they 

follow a pattern of simplification and/or 

more cost effective targeting of 

recording requirements, which should 

produce the types of advantages 

discussed above. Changes that add to 

the information recorded have other 

benefits as well. 

Specified Recording Thresholds. One 

change involves identifying the 

threshold at which a medical removal 

condition or restriction is to be 

recorded, and tying this to the level in 

a specific OSHA standard (lead, 

cadmium, etc.). This requirement 

involves no increase in cost to Federal 

agencies since the pre-removal or 

restriction conditions are already 

required under the specific OSHA 

standard. 

Needlesticks and Sharps Injuries and 

Hearing Loss Cases. By far the most 

extensive change in recording is the 

requirement to report all needlesticks 

and sharps injuries involving exposure 

to blood or other potentially infectious 

materials. In effect, OSHA is changing 

the emphasis on these injuries from the 

effects (the injury’s medical treatment) 

to the actual injury caused by the 

incident (i.e., the needlestick or sharps 

injury). Recording all needlesticks and 

sharps injuries will provide far more 

useful information for illness prevention 

purposes to Federal agencies that 

administer hospitals and other medical 

facilities. Unlike many other conditions 

(e.g., blood poisoning and hearing loss) 

that are progressive, AIDS and hepatitis 

are either present or they are not. In any 

given work setting, the risk is 

probabilistic and bi-modally distributed; 

whether one is infected by an injury or 

one is not. Under these circumstances, 

the important focus is to prevent all 

injuries that might lead to illness. For 

that prevention strategy to be successful, 

however, the agency should have a 

complete picture of the overall pattern 

of all needlesticks and sharps injuries. 

This requires recording all such injuries, 

whether or not they result in AIDS, 

hepatitis, or other bloodborne illness. 

Because of their high mortality and 

disability potentials, AIDS and hepatitis 

are particularly serious illnesses. One 

implication of this fact, however, is that 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68797

the benefits per case of prevention are 

large. Another implication is that there 

are substantial employee morale 

benefits to a prevention program that is 

comprehensive and well informed. 

Recording all risky wounds and then 

using the data for prevention are actions 

that are reasonable. Adopting Part 1904 

provisions is also likely to result in 

indirect benefits in the form of 

improved patient care. 

Hearing loss cases also result in 

substantial disability and can lead to 

safety accidents in the workplace. 

OSHA believes that aligning the 

recording threshold for such cases with 

the Standard Threshold Shift criterion 

in the Agency’s Occupational Noise 

Standard will simplify recording for 

many Federal agencies that are already 

familiar with this criterion. The shift in 

this recording criterion will also 

increase the number of hearing loss 

cases captured by the recordkeeping 

system and provide core opportunities 

for Federal agencies to intervene to 

prevent other hearing loss cases. 

(3) Procedural Changes and 

Informational Requirements. The 

relationship between costs and benefits 

varies for the final rule’s procedural 

changes and for its requirements for 

additional information. Some provisions 

have positive but trivial costs. Others 

have more significant costs but provide 

substantial advantages. 

De Minimis Costs. A number of 

changes have costs that are so low that 

the benefits of the change are clearly 

greater. Examples include the 

provisions discussed below. Recording 

incidents within seven calendar days, 

rather than six working days, will 

impose costs for more rapid recording 

on establishments that work only five 

days a week. The reduced burden 

resulting from a simpler deadline—one 

week later—almost certainly outweighs 

this minimal cost, however. Moreover, 

for establishments that operate six or 

seven days a week, such as the law 

enforcement agencies, this change does 

not impose any additional costs. Under 

Part 1960, Federal agencies must 

compile the Annual Summary on a 

fiscal year basis, complete the Summary 

not later than 45 calendar days after the 

close of the fiscal year, and post the 

Summary copy for a minimum of 30 

consecutive days. Under Part 1904, the 

Summary must be compiled at the end 

of the calendar year, completed no later 

than February 1, and posted until April 

30. The cost, if any, for posting (but not 

revising) the Annual Summary for three 

months, rather than one month, is 

extremely small—particularly 

considering that quite a number of other 

certificates and information (e.g.

elevator or boiler inspection certificates) 

must be posted at all times. The ability 

of employees to refer back to the Annual 

Summary information, as well as the 

availability of the information to new 

employees when they are hired, clearly 

produces benefits that exceed the costs. 

Certification by an Agency Executive.

The requirement that an Agency 

executive certify the Summary will have 

the effect of increasing the oversight and 

accountability of higher management in 

health and safety activities. The 

certifying official will be responsible for 

ensuring that systems and processes are 

in place, and for holding the 

recordkeeper accountable. This 

increased awareness of job-related 

injuries and illnesses, and of their 

prevention, will translate into fewer 

accidents and injuries because the 

certifying executive will have a 

heightened sense of responsibility for 

safety and health, although quantifying 

this benefit is not possible at this time.

Additional Data Requirements for 

Form 301 and Form 300–A. The final 

rule will require Federal Agencies to 

provide several additional pieces of 

information, at an estimated cost of two 

minutes per Form 301 and twenty 

minutes per Form 300–A. Additional 

information related to incidents (on 

Form 301) includes: employee’s date of 

hire, emergency room visits, time the 

employee began work (starting time of 

the shift), and time of the accident. 

Additional establishment information 

(on the Form 300–A Summary) 

includes: annual average number of 

employees employed in that year, and 

total hours worked by all employees 

during the year. Information on the 

injured employee’s date of hire can 

provide insight into a number of factors 

that have been shown to relate to injury 

rates. Such factors may include 

inadequate training, inexperience on the 

job, etc. If OSHA were to link its injury 

data with information on the 

distribution of job tenure, for example, 

it could then calculate injury rates by 

job tenure category for different jobs. 

That information will help to identify 

areas where better training would have 

the greatest potential to reduce injuries. 

Data on starting times of shifts and the 

time of occurrence of the accident will 

facilitate research on whether accidents 

rates vary by shift, and whether certain 

portions of a shift are particularly 

dangerous. This information will be 

helpful to OSHA as well as a Federal 

agency’s own assessment of workplace 

safety and health. Most importantly, 

employees will receive the information 

they need to understand both the 

absolute and relative incidence of 

injuries and illnesses in their 

establishment. The inclusion of 

information concerning the average 

number of employees and total hours 

worked by all employees during the 

year will make it easier to calculate 

incidence rates directly from the posted 

summary. Federal agencies will also 

benefit from their ability to obtain 

incidence information quickly and 

easily. At the establishment level, 

occupational injury and illness records 

are examined at the beginning of a 

safety and health inspection and used 

by compliance personnel to identify 

safety and health problems that deserve 

attention. The data on Form 300 and 

Form 301 will also be used to determine 

what areas of the site, if any, warrant 

particular attention during the 

inspection. 

V. The Present Rulemaking 

The Federal Advisory Council on 

Occupational Safety and Health 

(FACOSH) was established by Executive 

Order 11612 to advise the Secretary of 

Labor on matters relating to the 

occupational safety and health of 

Federal employees. At the request of 

FACOSH, OSHA held a meeting on 

October 31, 2002 to discuss proposed 

changes to Federal agency occupational 

injury and illness recordkeeping and 

reporting requirements. Representatives 

from fourteen Federal departments or 

agencies and two Federal employee 

unions attended the meeting. Although 

OSHA received almost unanimous 

consensus that recordkeeping 

requirements for Federal agencies 

should be changed, two issues were 

raised. 

The first issue concerned whether 

under the proposed change a Federal 

agency could collect and report their 

injury and illness data on a fiscal year 

basis instead of a calendar year basis. 

Some agencies wanted to report on a 

fiscal year basis so that the OSHA 300 

log and the workers’ compensation 

chargeback costs reflected the same time 

periods. Currently, fiscal years (October 

through September) and chargeback 

years (July through June) do not reflect 

the same time periods. However, since 

OWCP chargeback data are available to 

each agency on a quarterly basis, 

agencies could use their data to compare 

chargeback costs to OSHA recordable 

injuries and illnesses for any period of 

time they desired. Also, use of the 

calendar year recording and reporting 

would allow for more accurate 

comparisons of Federal and private 

sector data. 

At the meeting, the second issue 

discussed was the differences between 

the information required on the CA 

forms and the OSHA 301 incident 

68798 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

report, and having to complete two 

different forms. While preparation of 

duplicative paperwork should be 

avoided, clearly in most instances if the 

CA form is used, a supplemental 

statement will frequently still be 

necessary to comply with OSHA 

reporting requirements. Agencies must 

be sensitive to the fact that the CA–1 or 

CA–2 is frequently the first entry in a 

FECA case record, and these forms are 

maintained in a Privacy Act 

government-wide system of records 

known as DOL/GOVT–1. Release of 

information on the CA forms must be 

consistent with the purpose for which 

the record was created and must be 

authorized by the Federal agency as a 

routine use under the Privacy Act. 

While elements of the CA–1, CA–2, and 

CA–6 contain some information useful 

to OSHA, OWCP’s forms are focused on 

identifying the injury, properly 

compensating the individual for any 

wage loss or impairment, and affecting 

a smooth return to duty. The data 

collected by OWCP, while valuable for 

its purpose under FECA, may for 

OSHA’s purposes provide too much 

unnecessary and extremely personal 

information about the employee and too 

little information on the details of how 

the injury occurred. Accordingly, while 

use of the information on the CA forms 

is not prohibited under the new OSHA 

rule because the Department of Labor 

seeks to minimize the burdens placed 

on agencies, OSHA recommends that 

each agency analyze whether it would 

be just as easy and cost effective to 

comply with these new requirements by 

implementing a system where OSHA 

301 forms are completed 

contemporaneously with CA forms. The 

information requested on the OSHA 301 

form, such as Items 14–17 which asks, 

‘‘What was the employee doing just 

before the incident occurred?’’, ‘‘What 

happened?’’, ‘‘What was the injury or 

illness?’’, or ‘‘What object or substance 

directly harmed the employee?’’, are not 

asked on the CA forms. Certain data 

elements contained on the CA forms 

contain personal information (such as 

the names of eligible dependents under 

FECA) which must be deleted before the 

CA forms are utilized to comply with 

OSHA’s new rule. For example, the 

following information must be deleted 

from the CA–1 forms: Entry 2 for Social 

Security Number, Entry 3 for Date of 

Birth, Entry 5 for Home Telephone 

Number, Entry 6 for Grade Level as of 

the date of injury, Entry 7 for 

Employee’s Home Mailing Address, 

Entry 8 for Dependent Information, 

Entry 19 for Employee’s Retirement 

Coverage, Entries 30 and 31 relating to 

information on Third Party subrogation, 

Entries 32 to 34 relating to medical 

treatment and the Receipt of Notice of 

Injury. 

The Department of Labor wishes to 

note that the use of electronic filing 

systems for Federal workers’

compensation claims would facilitate 

the elimination of those data fields not 

needed by OSHA. Moreover, an 

electronic prompt could then be 

developed when preparing the OSHA 

Form 301 at a time when memories of 

the injury are fresh and useful details 

about the injury can be most easily 

obtained. For example, a description of 

an injury on a CA form, such as 

‘‘slipped in hallway,’’ while sufficient 

for FECA purposes, might fail to alert 

safety and health professionals to the 

fact of which hallway or that the 

hallway in question is improperly 

lighted or slippery. 

At the January 10, 2003 FACOSH 

meeting, OSHA gave a presentation 

describing the differences between 

recordkeeping requirements under Parts 

1904 and 1960. OSHA pointed out that 

Part 1904 provides very specific 

instructions on recording criteria, and 

even contains a flow chart to aid in the 

decisionmaking process of recordability. 

OSHA also discussed the new forms and 

reviewed the timeframes to record 

injuries and illnesses. A number of 

questions followed the presentation, 

and FACOSH recommended that OSHA 

hold a meeting of Federal agency safety 

and health representatives to discuss the 

impact of the proposed recordkeeping 

change.

On February 25, 2003, OSHA held an 

informal meeting that was open to the 

public to discuss the proposed change. 

This meeting was announced in the 

Federal Register on February 10, 2003 

(Vol. 68, No. 27 FR 6783). The meeting 

agenda included: reason for the 

proposed change, description of the 

change, impact of the change, and 

implementation of the change. The 

meeting also provided a forum to air any 

issues that Federal agencies or the 

public wanted to bring up regarding the 

proposed change. The meeting 

produced four main issues: cost, timing, 

systems adjustment, and training. 

Representatives attended the meeting 

from twenty-one Federal agencies, two 

labor unions representing Federal 

employees, and several members of the 

public. 

Some felt that since Federal injury 

and illness rates continued to fall, 

Federal agencies would receive no 

benefit in switching recordkeeping 

systems. OSHA explained that this 

statement was not entirely accurate. 

Federal rates increased slightly between 

1999 and 2001, while the private sector 

rates declined by 9.5%. However, as 

already mentioned, comparing rates 

between the two recordkeeping systems 

is not currently possible because the 

two systems do not measure the same 

injury and illness experiences. 

Some agencies were concerned about 

the training costs they expected to incur 

to educate their employees about the 

new recordkeeping procedures. OSHA 

explained that while there could be 

some costs associated with training, this 

should not be significant. The new 

system is similar to existing Part 1960, 

Subpart I, in recording injury and 

illness incidents, and the Part 1904 

regulation is written in plain, userfriendly language, which should permit 

easily understandable recording criteria. 

Additionally, OSHA has developed 

training materials and will make 

training available as resources permit. 

OSHA will maximize the use of 

distance-learning technology and 

satellite broadcasting to make training 

available to the greatest number of 

personnel at the lowest possible cost. In 

some instances, OSHA plans to make 

available DVDs and videos to 

disseminate training materials, and 

OSHA has Part 1904 recordkeeping 

training material already available on its 

website. 

Based on OSHA’s experience with 

other transitions to Part 1904, the 

overall costs associated with changing 

the Federal agency injury and illness 

recordkeeping system should not be 

significant. Many Federal agencies 

perform work activities comparable to 

private sector employers, and OSHA has 

not been made aware of any significant 

concerns raised by the private sector 

related to the economic resources 

needed to complete the transition to and 

subsequent compliance with Part 1904. 

Any discussion regarding the cost to the 

Federal Government for implementing 

the provisions under Part 1904 must be 

considered in light of the fact that 

OSHA already requires private sector 

employers, some with as few as eleven 

employees, to comply with these same 

recordkeeping requirements. Likewise, 

since 2001, twenty-six States have been 

requiring employers of public sector 

employees (State and local government 

employees) to comply with the Part 

1904 recordkeeping requirements, and 

there has been no indication of a 

resource problem. 

OSHA has also discussed Part 1904 

transition with the U.S. Postal Service, 

and no significant problems related to 

cost have been identified. During 1999, 

the Postal Service established Part 1904 

requirements at 38,000 of its facilities 

nationwide, and although the Agency 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68799

*The Postal service is excluded from this figure, 

because they are already covered by the 

requirements of 29 CFR Part 1904.

did not specifically monitor the cost of 

training or implementation, the Postal 

Service did derive several benefits in its 

incident prevention efforts. For 

example, after implementing Part 1904, 

the Postal Service created an enhanced 

database of causal factors based on the 

reporting and investigation of all 

occupational injuries and illness beyond 

those previously reported to OWCP. The 

new information was used by the Postal 

Service to develop recommendations to 

address those causal factors and prevent 

reoccurrence of similar incidents. Since 

1998, the Postal Service has achieved an 

11% reduction in their lost time case 

rate (from 3.03 in FY 1998 to 2.69 in FY 

2003). The Postal Service lost time case 

rate (a measurement of the occurrence of 

severe injuries and illnesses) represents 

an 18% improvement over the rest of 

Executive Branch Federal agencies. 

OSHA considers the information 

obtained from the Postal Service to be 

significant since the USPS employs 

approximately one-third of the total 

Federal workforce. 

Costs of Transition 

The Occupational Safety and Health 

Administration does not consider an 

economic feasibility study to be 

necessary for the purpose of this 

regulation. In the private sector 

employers with as few as eleven 

employees must comply with the 

requirements of 29 CFR Part 1904. It 

cannot be reasonably argued that the 

costs would be too great for the United 

States Government to comply. As 

discussed above the U.S. Postal Service 

converted their recordkeeping to 

conform with1904 in 1999 and then in 

2002 made the transition to the revised 

1904. They did not track the costs 

incurred in making these transitions but 

did not feel that the costs exceeded the 

benefits of the change. 

Like their private sector counterparts, 

Federal agencies will incur the initial 

costs of training recordkeeping 

personnel. This is estimated at one hour 

per person trained. Each Federal 

establishment will incur the annual 

costs of setting up the log and posting 

the annual summary. OSHA estimated 

that this will require 8 minutes per 

establishment. However, since Federal 

agencies already must keep a log, and 

must post a summary, it is estimated 

that these tasks will not create 

additional costs for Federal agencies. 

The proposed regulation requires the 

senior establishment management 

official or someone in the direct chain 

of command between the senior 

establishment manager and the agency 

head to certify that he or she has 

examined this document and 

‘‘reasonably believes, based on his or 

her knowledge of the process by which 

the information was recorded, that the 

annual summary is correct and 

complete.’’ This is not significantly 

different than the private sector 

requirement for certification by the 

owner of the company, an officer of the 

corporation, the highest ranking 

company official working at the 

establishment, or the immediate 

supervisor of the highest ranking 

company official working at the 

establishment. OSHA estimated the 

amount of time for this activity as 30 

minutes. The amount of time for the 

record keeper to prepare the annual 

summary was estimated as 20 minutes. 

The costs of maintaining the Log and 

Incident Reports are related to the 

number of cases recorded. During the 

private sector rule making OSHA 

estimated that it will require an average 

of 15 minutes for the Log entry plus, for 

18% of the cases, 22 minutes for the 301 

form following the requirements of 29 

CFR Part 1904. In fiscal year 2003 

Executive Branch agencies (excluding 

the U.S. Postal Service)* reported 81,283 

non fatal injuries, and 61 fatalities. This 

equates to 50161 hours for 1,941,511 

Federal employees or slightly more than 

1.5 minutes for each covered employee. 

This figure assumes 15 minutes to 

complete the log entry and 22 minutes 

to complete the 301 for 100% of the 

incidents.

The current rule requires employers 

to provide the Log and Incident Reports 

to an OSHA inspector during a 

compliance visit. Federal 

establishments like their private sector 

counter parts are required by the final 

rule to provide a copy of these forms to 

the inspector on request. OSHA believes 

that providing copies has in fact been 

the practice in the past, even though 

former rule did not spell this out 

specifically. OSHA thus does not 

believe that this small change in the 

regulation will result in burdens or costs 

for Federal establishments. 

This regulation requires employers to 

set up a way for employees to report 

work-related injuries and illnesses and 

inform employees about the approach 

they have chosen. OSHA assumes that 

it will take a Personnel Training and 

Labor Relations Specialist (or 

equivalent) at each establishment an 

average of twenty minutes to decide on 

a system and inform employees of it. 

The ‘‘way’’ will usually simply involve 

directing supervisors to inform their 

subordinates, as part of their usual 

communication with them, to report 

work-related injuries and illnesses to 

their supervisor. Most, if not all, 

establishments require employees 

routinely to report problems of any kind 

to their supervisors, and reporting 

injuries and illnesses is simply one of 

the kinds of things employees report. 

OSHA believes there will be no 

additional cost associated with the 

supervisors’ forwarding of these reports 

to the person in charge of 

recordkeeping, because this is already 

part of supervisors’ duties. 

A costs analysis conducted for the 

private sector rule making on 29 CFR 

Part 1904 estimated the average annual 

costs of compliance with this regulation 

for private sector establishments were 

less than $58.00 for all businesses in the 

private sector. For establishments with 

fewer than 20 employees, the average 

annual costs per establishment were 

$31.63 (Federal Register Vol 66, No. 13/ 

Friday, January 19, 2001/page 6108). 

Because the requirements for the 

Federal establishments will be 

essentially the same as covered private 

sector establishments there is no reason 

to believe that the costs per Federal 

establishment will exceed the costs for 

private sector establishments. 

For a full explanation of the costs and 

how they were estimated, see Federal 

Register Vol. 66, No. 13/Friday, January 

19, 2001/pages 6089–6108. 

In addition to providing training and 

compliance assistance, during the first 

year in which the Part 1904 

recordkeeping provisions are in effect, 

OSHA compliance officers conducting 

inspections at Federal establishments 

will focus on assisting Federal agencies 

to comply with the new rule. OSHA will 

not issue notices for violations under 

Part 1960, Subpart I, until January 1, 

2006, provided that the Federal agency 

is attempting in good faith to meet its 

recordkeeping obligation and agrees to 

make corrections necessary to bring the 

records into compliance. 

Some agencies questioned how OSHA 

would communicate the Part 1904 

recordkeeping change to the Federal 

sector. OSHA suggested that the field 

Federal Safety and Health Councils 

(FSHC) would be a good source to help 

communicate information across the 

country. The FSHCs, which include 

approximately fifty chapters throughout 

the country, are cooperative interagency 

organizations chartered by the Secretary 

of Labor to facilitate the exchange of 

information regarding occupational 

safety and health. OSHA agreed to 

participate in communication and 

training as resources permitted, and 

believed that train-the-trainer courses 

would work well to help prepare 

68800 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

Federal agencies throughout the nation 

for the recordkeeping change. 

In response to a concern about 

whether Federal agencies and their 

employees will be more inclined to 

underreport or manipulate the recording 

of injuries, OSHA stated that like the 

current OWCP-based recording system, 

the accuracy of records under Part 1904 

relies on agency and employee integrity. 

Another issue raised was whether as 

a result of the OSHA recordkeeping 

system change agencies would lose the 

independent data provided by OWCP. 

OSHA explained that OWCP data will 

not be impacted by this change, and will 

continue to be available to Federal 

agencies. The OWCP data track different 

issues and information, and would still 

be available to measure workers’

compensation injuries and associated 

costs. OSHA agrees that Federal 

agencies may use OWCP CA forms in 

lieu of the OSHA 301 forms, provided 

that the Federal agencies include the 

additional OSHA-required information 

on an attached supplemental sheet (to 

include the four questions mentioned 

earlier). 

One commenter raised the concern 

that including applicable portions of the 

Part 1904 system would require Federal 

agencies to record different or nontraditional incidents, such as 

information related to workplace 

violence. OSHA believes that requiring 

Federal agencies to keep records under 

the Part 1904 system would have the 

opposite effect. Indeed, under existing 

Part 1960, Subpart I, Federal agencies 

are required to report on the OSHA log 

injuries resulting from workplace 

violence when medical care is provided 

and information is reported on the 

OWCP CA–1 Form. Likewise, OSHA’s 

current recordkeeping requirements for 

the private sector under Part 1904 

include the recording of injuries 

resulting from workplace violence. 

OSHA believes that the standardization 

of recordkeeping requirements will 

eliminate much of the uncertainty as to 

whether specific incidents should be 

recorded, and will require Federal 

agencies to record injuries and illnesses 

regardless of whether they are 

recordable under OWCP.

Another apprehension raised by one 

commenter was whether changing to the 

Part 1904 requirements would cause 

injury and illness rates to go up. OSHA 

explained that the change could affect 

those rates. Some agencies might 

experience a reduction in rates, some 

might have rates that go up, and some 

might have rates that remain the same. 

The increased accuracy in 

recordkeeping resulting from the change 

to the Part 1904 system could cause 

injury and illness rates to go down, but 

if an agency is not recording them 

accurately under existing Part 1960, 

Subpart I, the rates could go up. For 

instance, injuries and illnesses related 

to diagnosis, prevention, first aid, or in 

some cases travel on temporary duty 

(TDY) would no longer be recordable, 

and would result in a reduction in the 

number of recordable incidents. As 

stated earlier, one of the reasons for 

making the change is because the two 

systems do not track the same incidents, 

and therefore do not keep a record of the 

same data. The data will change, and 

this may cause injury and illness rates 

to go up or down. It should be noted 

that the current system under 29 CFR 

Part 1960 does not track injuries of 

contract employees. Under 29 CFR 

1904.31, employers ‘‘must record the 

recordable injuries and illnesses that 

occur to employees who are not on your 

payroll if you supervise these 

employees on a day-to-day basis.’’

Because of this provision, Federal 

agencies will be responsible for 

recording recordable injuries sustained 

by independent contractors who work 

alongside Federal employees. If a 

Federal agency chooses to use OWCP 

Forms CA–1, CA–2 and CA–6 for the 

purpose of complying with OSHA’s 

recording requirements, agencies should 

not use the CA forms for recording 

injuries sustained by contractors. To do 

so would create administrative 

problems for OWCP and potential 

confusion over workers’ compensation 

coverage for such individuals. As a 

result, OSHA Form 301 must be used to 

record injuries and illnesses of contract 

employees. 

OSHA acknowledged that agencies 

could incur additional costs to develop 

information systems that would capture 

their injury and illness experience and 

subsequent data roll-up (collecting and 

assembling injury and illness statistics 

from subordinate establishments into 

reports that reflect the total agency 

experience), but explained that the Part 

1904 recordkeeping change does not 

include a requirement mandating data 

roll-up. Federal agencies would not 

have to invest in a data roll-up system, 

but OSHA acknowledged that agencies 

would have the discretion to use the 

data as a management tool for executing 

their safety and health programs. The 

meeting closed with the agreement that 

absent the mandate to roll-up the data, 

the agency representatives had no 

substantive reasons why OSHA should 

not go forward with the proposed 

recordkeeping change. Of note, while 

most participants were opposed to 

mandating roll-up, there was a 

consensus that OSHA should look at 

systems that could be offered 

Government-wide to assist agencies in 

the roll-up of their safety and health 

recordkeeping data. 

VII. Access to Injury and Illness 

Records 

As noted above, the final rule requires 

Federal agencies to use the same injury 

and illness reporting forms as the 

private sector. Specifically, Federal 

agencies will be required to use OSHA 

Form 300, Log of Work-Related Injuries 

and Illnesses (replacing the OSHA 

Federal Agency Log), and OSHA Form 

300–A, Summary of Work-Related 

Injuries, and OSHA Form–301, Injury 

and Illness Incident Report (replacing 

OSHA Form 101, Supplementary 

Record of Occupational Injuries and 

Illnesses). As with the existing 

requirements under Part 1960, Subpart 

I, OSHA will continue to allow Federal 

agencies to use alternate forms, such as 

workers’ compensation claim forms, to 

report OSHA injury and illness 

information. The use of alternate 

workers’ compensation claim forms to 

record OSHA injury and illness 

information is also currently available to 

private sector employers under Part 

1904. In both the private sector and 

Federal sector, any use of alternate 

forms to record occupational injuries 

and illnesses must include all OSHArelated information (29 CFR 1904.29(a) 

and 29 CFR 1960.66(e)). 

The final rule continues OSHA’s longstanding policy of allowing employees 

and their representatives to access the 

occupational injury and illness 

information kept by their employers, 

with some limitations. Part 1904 

requires an employer to provide limited 

access to the OSHA injury and illness 

recordkeeping forms to current and 

former employees, as well as to two 

types of employee representatives. The 

first is a personal representative of an 

employee or former employee, who is a 

person that the employee or former 

employee designates, in writing, as his 

or her personal representative, or is the 

legal representative of a deceased or 

legally incapacitated employee or 

former employee. The second is an 

authorized employee representative, 

which is defined as an authorized 

collective bargaining agent of one or 

more employees working at the 

employer’s establishment. 

29 CFR 1904.35 accords employees 

and their representatives three separate 

access rights. First, it gives any 

employee, former employee, personal 

representative, or authorized employee 

representative the right to a copy of the 

current OSHA 300 Log, and to any 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68801

stored OSHA 300 Log(s), for any 

establishment in which the employee or 

former employee has worked. The 

employer must provide one free copy of 

the OSHA 300 Log(s) by the end of the 

next business day. The employee, 

former employee, personal 

representative, or authorized employee 

representative is not entitled to see, or 

to obtain a copy of, the confidential list 

of names and case numbers for privacy 

cases (as discussed above). 

Second, any employee, former 

employee, or personal representative is 

entitled to one free copy of the OSHA 

301 Incident Report describing an injury 

or illness to that employee, by the end 

of the next business day. Finally, an 

authorized employee representative is 

entitled to copies of the right-hand 

portion of all OSHA 301 forms for the 

establishment(s) where the 

representative represents one or more 

employees under a collective bargaining 

agreement. The right-hand portion of 

the 301 form contains the heading 

‘‘Information about the case,’’ and elicits 

information about how the injury or 

illness occurred, including the 

employee’s actions just prior to the 

incident, the materials and tools 

involved, and how the incident 

occurred, but does not contain the 

employee’s name. No information other 

than that on the right-hand portion of 

the OSHA 301 form may be disclosed to 

an authorized employee representative. 

The employer must provide the 

authorized employee representative 

with one free copy of all the 301 forms 

for the establishment within seven 

calendar days.

Part 1904 also includes a number of 

provisions requiring employers to 

protect the privacy of employees when 

recording injuries and illnesses. For 

certain injuries and illnesses listed 

under § 1904.29, the employer must 

omit the employee’s name from the 

OSHA 300 Log. Instead, the employer 

simply enters ‘‘privacy case,’’ and keeps 

a separate, confidential list containing 

the identifying information. The 

separate listing is needed to allow 

OSHA and other government 

representatives to obtain the employee’s 

name during a workplace inspection 

and to assist employers in keeping track 

of such cases in the event future 

revisions to the entry become necessary. 

This approach also allows the employer 

to provide OSHA 300 Log data to 

employees, former employees and 

employee representatives, as required 

by § 1904.35, while at the same time 

protecting the privacy of workers who 

have experienced occupational injuries 

and illnesses that have privacy 

concerns. 

Under Part 1904, privacy cases 

include injury and illness to an intimate 

body part or the reproductive system; 

injury or illness resulting from sexual 

assault; mental illnesses; HIV infection, 

hepatitis, or tuberculosis; needlestick 

injuries and cuts from sharp objects that 

are contaminated with another person’s 

blood or other potentially infectious 

material; and, other illnesses, if the 

employee voluntarily requests that his 

or her name not be entered on the log. 

Mental illnesses are not considered 

work-related unless the employee 

voluntarily provides the employer with 

an opinion from a physician or other 

licensed health care professional with 

appropriate training and experience 

stating that the employee has a mental 

illness that is work-related. Also, if the 

employer has a reasonable basis to 

believe that information describing the 

privacy concern case may be personally 

identifiable even though the employee’s 

name has been omitted, the employer 

may use discretion in describing the 

injury or illness. In such cases, the 

employer must enter enough 

information to identify the incident and 

the general severity of the injury or 

illness. 

The Privacy Act of 1974, 5 U.S.C. 

552a (2000) regulates the collection, 

maintenance, use, and dissemination of 

personal information by Federal 

agencies. Section 552a(e)(4) of the 

Privacy Act requires that all Federal 

agencies publish in the Federal Register

a notice of the existence and character 

of their systems of records. The Privacy 

Act permits the disclosure of 

information about individuals without 

their consent pursuant to a published 

routine use where the information will 

be used for a purpose that is compatible 

with the purpose for which the 

information was originally collected. 

OSHA anticipates that Federal 

agencies will develop agency-specific 

data systems for recording illness and 

injury information to meet the 

requirements of the revised Part 1960, 

Subpart I. While OSHA does not require 

that Federal employee illness and injury 

records be retrieved by individual 

identifiers, some Federal agencies 

developing illness and injury data 

systems may find it useful to do so. 

Each agency is responsible for assuring 

its own compliance with the Privacy 

Act, and for establishing Privacy Act 

systems of records when the agency 

determines such compliance is required. 

As noted above, the revised 

recordkeeping rules include mandatory 

access rights to certain illness and 

injury records, such as an employee’s 

right to copy the OSHA 300 Log and an 

employee representative’s right to view 

the non-identifying right-hand portion 

of the OSHA 301 Incident Report (29 

CFR 1904.35). Where an agency 

determines that all or part of the records 

required under the revised OSHA 

recordkeeping rule are part of a Privacy 

Act records system, the agency is 

responsible for issuing appropriate 

Notices of Routine Use to ensure that all 

access rights prescribed in Part 1960, 

Subpart I, are preserved. 

VIII. Technical Revisions to Existing 

Requirements 

As described elsewhere in today’s 

final rule, Federal agency injury and 

illness recordkeeping requirements will, 

with certain modifications, be the same 

as those in subparts C, D, E and G of Part 

1904. However, in order to eliminate 

confusion, and provide for a single 

definition, today’s final rule will not 

adopt the definition of ‘‘establishment’’

in Part 1904.46. Instead, the definition 

of establishment in existing Part 

1960.2(h) will remain applicable to 

Federal agencies. OSHA believes the 

existing definition of establishment in 

1960.2 better describes the application 

of that term in the Federal sector. 

Unlike the private sector, it is 

common for most Federal agencies to 

have multiple establishments 

throughout their national and regional 

offices. Under Part 1960, the term 

establishment means a single physical 

location where business is conducted or 

where services or operations are 

performed. Where distinctly separate 

activities are performed at a single 

physical location, such as in a typical 

national or regional office of an 

executive branch department where 

headquarters for several agencies or 

programs are housed, each agency 

headquarters operation must be treated 

as a separate establishment. At the 

Department of Labor, for example, 

regional and national offices for OSHA, 

the Employment Standards 

Administration, Employment and 

Training Administration, Employee 

Benefits Security Administration, etc. 

would all be treated as distinct 

establishments for illness and injury 

recordkeeping purposes. Typically, an 

establishment as used in Part 1960 

refers to a field activity, regional office, 

area office, installation, or facility. 

OSHA is also amending certain 

provisions in existing Part 1960 to 

eliminate duplication and provide 

consistency with the requirements in 

Part 1904. First, today’s final rule 

amends Part 1960.2(l) to incorporate the 

regulatory text from the definition of 

‘‘injury and illness’’ set forth in Part 

1904.46. As a result, the existing 

language defining Categories of injuries/

68802 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

illnesses/fatalities in 1960.2(l)(1) 

through (6) is deleted, and replaced 

with the definition for injury and illness 

from 1904.46. 

Likewise, in order to make Part 1960 

consistent with Part 1904, today’s final 

rule modifies the requirements in 

existing 1960.29(b) addressing accident 

investigation. Existing 1960.29 provides 

that, while all accidents should be 

investigated, such investigation should 

be reflective of the seriousness of the 

accident. Existing paragraph (b) 

includes a statement directing Federal 

agencies that ‘‘each accident which 

results in a fatality or the hospitalization 

of five or more employees shall be 

investigated to determine the causal 

factors involved.’’ Today’s final rule 

modifies this provision to direct Federal 

agencies to conduct an investigation 

after ‘‘a fatality or the in-patient 

hospitalization of three or more 

employees.’’ This change preserves the 

requirement in the current Part 1960 

that federal agencies investigate 

multiple-hospitalization accidents, but 

reduces the trigger from five to three to 

conform with the revised requirements 

in 29 CFR 1960.70 and 1904.39 that 

agencies report to OSHA accidents that 

involve a fatality or the hospitalization 

of three or more employees.

IX. Administrative Procedure 

This rule relates to matters of Federal 

agency management and personnel and, 

therefore, is exempt from the usual 

Administrative Procedure Act 

requirements for prior notice and 

comment and a 30-day delay in effective 

date. See, 5 U.S.C. 553(a)(2) and (d). 

The Paperwork Reduction Act (44 

U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) does not apply 

because this rulemaking, which applies 

only to Federal agencies, does not create 

or modify information collection 

requirements that require the approval 

of the Office of Management and 

Budget. Additionally, the Department of 

Labor has determined that this 

rulemaking is a nonmajor rule under the 

Congressional Review Act (5 U.S.C. 

Chapter 8) and will submit a report 

thereon to the U.S. Senate, House of 

Representatives, and General 

Accounting Office in accordance with 

that law at the same time this 

rulemaking document is sent to the 

Office of the Federal Register for 

publication. 

Because this rulemaking applies only 

to Federal agencies, the Department of 

Labor certifies pursuant to the 

Regulatory Flexibility Act, (5 U.S.C. 

605(b)), that this final rule will not have 

a significant impact on a substantial 

number of small entities. Similarly, the 

requirements of the Unfunded Mandates 

Reform Act of 1995 and Executive Order 

13132 addressing ‘‘Federalism’’ do not 

apply. The Department of Labor has also 

determined that this is not a ‘‘significant 

regulatory action’’ under Section 3(f) of 

Executive Order 12866, ‘‘Regulatory 

Planning and Review,’’ and that it 

relates to a matter of agency 

organization, management, or 

personnel. See Executive Order 12866; 

Section 3(d)(3). 

X. Summary and Explanation of the 

Final Rule, 29 CFR Part 1960, Subpart 

I, Recordkeeping and Reporting 

Requirements 

As described below, the final rule 

revises OSHA’s requirements for the 

recording and reporting of work-related 

deaths, injuries, and illnesses for 

Federal agencies. 

The final rule becomes effective on 

January 1, 2005. At that time, the 

following recordkeeping actions will 

occur: 

(1) The revisions to 29 CFR Part 1960, 

Subpart I, entitled Recordkeeping and 

Reporting Requirements, which include 

reference to pertinent provisions in 29 

CFR Part 1904, will be in effect. 

(2) Federal agencies will utilize the 

same injury and illness recordkeeping 

forms that the private sector is required 

to use: 

(A) OSHA Form 300, Log of WorkRelated Injuries and Illnesses (replaces 

the Log of Federal Occupational Injuries 

and Illnesses); 

(B) OSHA Form 300–A, Summary of 

Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses; 

(C) OSHA Form 301, Injury and 

Illness Incident Report; and 

(3) The following OSHA publication 

will be withdrawn: OSHA 2014 (revised 

1986); 

(4) All letters of interpretation 

regarding the former Federal agency 

recordkeeping requirements will be 

withdrawn and removed from the 

OSHA CD–ROM and the OSHA Internet 

site. 

Summary of the Modifications to 

Existing 29 CFR Part 1960, Subparts A 

and D.

Today’s final rule deletes the existing 

language in 29 CFR 1960.2(l) addressing 

the definition of ‘‘Categories of injuries/

illnesses/fatalities,’’ and replaces it with 

the definition of ‘‘injury and illness’’ set 

forth at 29 CFR 1904.46. The change is 

necessary to eliminate duplicative 

definitions in Part 1960 and Part 1904. 

Accordingly, new Section 1960.2(l) 

provides: ‘‘(l) Injury or Illness. An injury 

or illness is an abnormal condition or 

disorder. Injuries include cases such as, 

but not limited to, a cut, fracture, sprain, 

or amputation. Illness includes both 

acute and chronic illnesses, such as, but 

not limited to, a skin disease, 

respiratory disorder, or poisoning.’’

Existing 29 CFR 1960.29 is revised to 

provide: ‘‘(b) In any case, each accident 

which results in a fatality or the 

hospitalization of three or more 

employees shall be investigated to 

determine the causal factors involved. 

Except to the extent necessary to protect 

employees and the public, evidence at 

the scene of an accident shall be left 

untouched until inspectors have an 

opportunity to examine it.’’ This change 

preserves the requirement in the current 

Part 1960 that federal agencies 

investigate multiple-hospitalization 

accidents, but reduces the trigger from 

five to three to conform with the revised 

requirements in 29 CFR 1960.70 and 

1904.39 that agencies report to OSHA 

accidents that involve a fatality or the 

hospitalization of three or more 

employees. 

Summary of the Modifications to 

Existing 29 CFR Part 1960, Subpart I, to 

Make the Pertinent Recordkeeping 

Requirements in Part 1904 Applicable to 

the Federal Sector.

Today’s final rule includes 

modifications to existing 29 CFR Part 

1960, Subpart I, to make the 

requirements in Part 1904 applicable to 

the Federal sector. The final rule revises 

existing 29 CFR 1960.66—Purpose, 

scope and general provisions—to 

include new language, as well as 

removes and redesignates certain 

paragraphs. Paragraph (a), which 

includes new language, states: ‘‘The 

purpose of this Subpart is to establish 

uniform requirements for collecting and 

compiling by agencies of occupational 

safety and health data, for proper 

evaluation and necessary corrective 

action, and to assist the Secretary in 

meeting the requirement to develop and 

maintain an effective program of 

collection, compilation, and analysis of 

occupational safety and health 

statistics.’’

Paragraph (b) also includes new 

language and makes certain provisions 

in 1904 applicable to Federal agencies. 

It provides: ‘‘Except as modified by this 

Subpart, Federal agency injury and 

illness recording and reporting 

requirements will be the same as 29 CFR 

Part 1904 Subparts C, D, E, and G.’’

Paragraph (b) also makes clear that the 

definition of ‘‘establishment’’ found in 

29 CFR 1960.2(h) remains applicable to 

Federal agencies. 

Existing 1960.66(c), which directs 

Federal agencies to utilize collected 

information to identify unsafe and 

unhealthful working conditions and 

establish program priorities, is retained. 

The final rule removes the language in 

existing paragraph (d) and replaces it 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68803

with existing paragraph (e). 

Accordingly, existing paragraph (e), 

which provides for the use of more 

detailed recordkeeping forms than those 

provided by the Department of Labor, is 

now new paragraph (d). The new 

paragraph (d) also includes the 

following additional language: ‘‘Because 

of the unique nature of the national 

recordkeeping program, Federal 

agencies must have recording and 

reporting requirements that are the same 

as Part 1904 for determining which 

injuries and illnesses will be entered 

into the records and how they are 

entered. All other injury and illness 

recording and reporting requirements 

used by any Federal agency may be 

more stringent than, or supplemental to, 

the requirements of Part 1904, but must 

not interfere with the agency’s ability to 

provide the injury and illness 

information required by Part 1904.’’

The final rule also removes existing 

paragraph (f), but retains the 

requirements in existing paragraph (g). 

However, existing paragraph (g), which 

addresses requirements for secrecy 

when Federal agencies collect 

information on occupational injuries 

and illness related to national defense 

and foreign policy, is redesignated as 

new paragraph (e). 

The final rule also includes the 

following note at the end of Part 

1960.66: ‘‘The recording or reporting of 

a work-related injury, illness or fatality 

does not mean that the Federal agency 

or employee was at fault, that an OSHA 

rule has been violated, or that the 

employee is eligible for workers’

compensation or other benefits.’’

‘‘The requirements of this Part do not 

diminish or modify in any way a 

Federal agency’s responsibilities to 

report or record injuries and illnesses as 

required by the Office of Workers’

Compensation Programs under the 

Federal Employees’ Compensation Act 

(FECA), 5 U.S.C. 8101 et seq.’’

The final rule replaces existing 29 

CFR 1960.67—Log of occupational 

injuries and illnesses—with a new 

paragraph clarifying who is responsible 

for certifying the OSHA 300 Log at 

Federal establishments. The new 

Section 1960.67 provides: ‘‘As required 

by 29 CFR 1904.32, a company 

executive must certify that he or she has 

examined the OSHA 300 Log and that 

he or she believes, based on his or her 

knowledge of the process by which the 

information was recorded, that the 

annual summary is correct and 

complete. For Federal establishments, 

the person who performs the 

certification must be one of the 

following: (1) The senior establishment 

management official, (2) the head of the 

Agency for which the senior 

establishment management official 

works, or (3) any management official 

who is in the direct chain-of-command 

between the senior establishment 

management official and the Agency 

head. 

The final rule also includes a note to 

Section 1960.67 explaining that the 

modification to the above requirement 

for certification of Federal agency injury 

and illness records is necessary because 

the private sector position titles 

contained in the regulation do not fit the 

Federal agency position titles for agency 

executives. The Federal officials listed 

in this paragraph are intended to be the 

equivalent of the private sector officials 

who are required to certify records 

under 1904.32(b)(4). 

Today’s final rule removes existing 

Section 1960.68 addressing 

requirements associated with Federal 

agency completion of supplementary 

records of occupational injuries and 

illnesses. Instead, the new Section 

1960.68 addresses ‘‘prohibition against 

discrimination’’ and provides: ‘‘29 CFR 

1904.36 refers to Section 11(c) of the 

Occupational Safety and Health Act. For 

Federal agencies, the words ‘Section 

11(c)’ shall be read as ‘Executive Order 

12196, Section 1–201(f).’ ’’ The revised 

section includes a note explaining that 

the modification is necessary because 

Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety 

and Health Act only applies to private 

sector employers and the U.S. Postal 

Service. The corresponding prohibitions 

against discrimination applicable to 

Federal employers are contained in 

Section 1–201(f) of Executive Order 

12196. 

Existing Section 1960.69, which 

includes requirements for Federal 

agencies to complete annual injury and 

illness summaries, is removed. The new 

Section 1960.69 outlines the retention 

and updating of old forms. The new 

paragraph states: ‘‘Federal agencies 

must retain copies of the recordkeeping 

records utilized under the old system 

for five years following the year to 

which they relate and continue to 

provide access to the data as though 

these forms were the OSHA Form 300 

Log and Form 301 Incident Reports. 

Agencies are not required to update the 

old forms.’’

The final rule revises existing Section 

1960.70, addressing the reporting of 

serious accidents, to read: ‘‘Agencies 

must provide the Office of Federal 

Agency Programs with a summary 

report of each fatal and catastrophic 

accident investigation. The summaries 

must address the date/time of accident, 

agency/establishment name and 

location, and consequences, description 

of operation and the accident, causal 

factors, applicable standards and their 

effectiveness, and agency corrective/

preventive actions.’’ The final rule also 

includes a note to Section 1960.70 

explaining that the paragraph is retained 

from the previous regulation 29 CFR 

1960.70 paragraph (e). The requirements 

of this paragraph are in addition to the 

requirements for reporting fatalities and 

multiple hospitalization incidents to 

OSHA under 29 CFR 1904. 39. 

The final rule deletes existing 

Sections 1960.71, Location and 

utilization of records and reports; 

1960.72, Access to records by Secretary; 

and 1960.73, Retention of records. 

Existing 1960.74, addressing Federal 

agencies’ annual reports, is retained, but 

is redesignated as Section 1960.71. 

Paragraph (a)(2) of the new 1960.71 has 

been revised to provide: ‘‘The Secretary 

must provide the agencies with the 

guidelines and format for the reports at 

the time they are requested.’’

Today’s final rule also provides that 

new Sections 1960.72 through 1960.74 

are reserved. 

XI. Authority and Signature 

This document was prepared under 

the direction of John L. Henshaw, 

Assistant Secretary of Labor for 

Occupational Safety and Health, U.S. 

Department of Labor, Third and 

Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, 

DC 20210. 

Accordingly, pursuant to Sections 19 

of the Occupational Safety and Health 

Act of 1970 (84 Stat. 1609, 1614; 29 

U.S.C. 688, 673), 5 U.S.C. 553, Secretary 

of Labor’s Order No. 1–90 (55 FR 9033), 

and Executive Order 12196.

List of Subjects in 29 CFR Part 1960

Government employees, Occupational 

safety and health, Reporting and 

recordkeeping requirements.

Signed at Washington, DC, this 18th day of 

November 2004. 

John L. Henshaw, 

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational 

Safety and Health.

■ For the reasons stated in the preamble, 

29 CFR Part 1960 is amended to read as 

follows:

PART 1960—BASIC PROGRAM 

ELEMENTS FOR FEDERAL EMPLOYEE 

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND 

HEALTH PROGRAMS AND RELATED 

MATTERS

■ 1. The authority citation for Part 1960 

continues to read as follows:

Authority: Sections 19 and 24 of the 

Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 

(84 Stat. 1609, 1614; 29 U.S.C. 668, 673), 5 

68804 Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 

U.S.C. 553, Secretary of Labor’s Order No. 1–

90 (55 FR 9033), and Executive Order 12196.

■ 2. Amend § 1960.2 by revising 

paragraph (l) to read as follows:

§ 1960.2 Definitions.

* * * * *

(l) Injury or illness. An injury or 

illness is an abnormal condition or 

disorder. Injuries include cases such as, 

but not limited to, a cut, fracture, sprain, 

or amputation. Illness includes both 

acute and chronic illnesses, such as, but 

not limited to, a skin disease, 

respiratory disorder, or poisoning.

* * * * *

■ 3. Amend § .1960.29 by revising 

paragraph (b) to read as follows:

§ 1960.29 Accident investigation.

* * * * *

(b) In any case, each accident which 

results in a fatality or the hospitalization 

of three or more employees shall be 

investigated to determine the causal 

factors involved. Except to the extent 

necessary to protect employees and the 

public, evidence at the scene of an 

accident shall be left untouched until 

inspectors have an opportunity to 

examine it.

* * * * *

■ 4. Revise Subpart I to read as follows:

Subpart I—Recordkeeping and 

Reporting Requirements

Sec. 

1960.66 Purpose, scope, and general 

provisions. 

1960.67 Federal agency certification of the 

injury and illness annual summary 

(OSHA 300–A or equivalent). 

1960.68 Prohibition against discrimination. 

1960.69 Transition from former rule and 

retention and updating of old forms. 

1960.70 Reporting of serious accidents. 

1960.71 Agency annual reports. 

1960.72–1960.74 [Reserved].

Subpart I—Recordkeeping and 

Reporting Requirements

§ 1960.66 Purpose, scope and general 

provisions. 

(a) The purpose of this subpart is to 

establish uniform requirements for 

collecting and compiling by agencies of 

occupational safety and health data, for 

proper evaluation and necessary 

corrective action, and to assist the 

Secretary in meeting the requirement to 

develop and maintain an effective 

program of collection, compilation, and 

analysis of occupational safety and 

health statistics. 

(b) Except as modified by this subpart, 

Federal agency injury and illness 

recording and reporting requirements 

shall comply with the requirements 

under 29 CFR Part 1904, subparts C, D, 

E, and G, except that the definition of 

‘‘establishment’’ found in 29 CFR 

1960.2(h) will remain applicable to 

Federal agencies. 

(c) Each agency shall utilize the 

information collected through its 

management information system to 

identify unsafe and unhealthful working 

conditions, and to establish program 

priorities. 

(d) The provisions of this subpart are 

not intended to discourage agencies 

from utilizing recordkeeping and 

reporting forms which contain a more 

detailed breakdown of information than 

the recordkeeping and reporting forms 

provided by the Department of Labor. 

Because of the unique nature of the 

national recordkeeping program, 

Federal agencies must have recording 

and reporting requirements that are the 

same as 29 CFR Part 1904 for 

determining which injuries and 

illnesses will be entered into the records 

and how they are entered. All other 

injury and illness recording and 

reporting requirements used by any 

Federal agency may be more stringent 

than, or supplemental to, the 

requirements of 29 CFR Part 1904, but 

must not interfere with the agency’s 

ability to provide the injury and illness 

information required by 29 CFR Part 

1904. 

(e) Information concerning 

occupational injuries and illnesses or 

accidents which, pursuant to statute or 

Executive Order, must be kept secret in 

the interest of national defense or 

foreign policy shall be recorded on 

separate forms. Such records shall not 

be submitted to the Department of Labor 

but may be used by the appropriate 

Federal agency in evaluating the 

agency’s program to reduce 

occupational injuries, illnesses and 

accidents.

Note to § 1960.66: The recording or 

reporting of a work-related injury, illness or 

fatality does not constitute an admission that 

the Federal agency, or other individual was 

at fault or otherwise responsible for purposes 

of liability. Such recording or reporting does 

not constitute an admission of the existence 

of an employer/employee relationship 

between the individual recording the injury 

and the injured individual. The recording or 

reporting of any such injury, illness or 

fatality does not mean that an OSHA rule has 

been violated or that the individual in 

question is eligible for workers’

compensation or any other benefits. The 

requirements of this part do not diminish or 

modify in any way a Federal agency’s 

responsibilities to report or record injuries 

and illnesses as required by the Office of 

Workers’ Compensation Programs under the 

Federal Employees’ Compensation Act 

(FECA), 5 U.S.C. 8101 et seq.

§ 1960.67 Federal agency certification of 

the injury and illness annual summary 

(OSHA 300–A or equivalent). 

As required by 29 CFR 1904.32, a 

company executive must certify that he 

or she has examined the OSHA 300 Log 

and that he or she believes, based on his 

or her knowledge of the process by 

which the information was recorded, 

that the annual summary is correct and 

complete. For Federal establishments, 

the person who performs the 

certification shall be one of the 

following: 

(a) The senior establishment 

management official, 

(b) The head of the Agency for which 

the senior establishment management 

official works, or 

(c) Any management official who is in 

the direct chain of command between 

the senior establishment management 

official and the head of the Agency.

Note to § 1960.67: The requirement for 

certification of Federal agency injury and 

illness records in this section is necessary 

because the private sector position titles 

contained in 29 CFR part 1904 do not fit the 

Federal agency position titles for agency 

executives. The Federal officials listed in this 

section are intended to be the equivalent of 

the private sector officials who are required 

to certify records under § 1904.32(b)(4).

§ 1960.68 Prohibition against 

discrimination. 

Section 1904.36 of this chapter refers 

to Section 11(c) of the Occupational 

Safety and Health Act. For Federal 

agencies, the words ‘‘Section 11(c)’’

shall be read as ‘‘Executive Order 12196 

Section 1–201(f).’’

Note to § 1960.68: Section 11(c) of the 

Occupational Safety and Health Act only 

applies to private sector employers and the 

U.S. Postal Service. The corresponding 

prohibitions against discrimination 

applicable to Federal employers are 

contained in Section 1–201(f) of Executive 

Order 12196, 45 FR 12769, 3 CFR, 1980 

Comp. p. 145.

§ 1960.69 Retention and updating of old 

forms. 

Federal agencies must retain copies of 

the recordkeeping records utilized 

under the system in effect prior to 

January 1, 2005 for five years following 

the year to which they relate and 

continue to provide access to the data as 

though these forms were the OSHA 

Form 300 Log and Form 301 Incident 

Report. Agencies are not required to 

update the old forms.

§ 1960.70 Reporting of serious accidents. 

Agencies must provide the Office of 

Federal Agency Programs with a 

summary report of each fatal and 

catastrophic accident investigation. The 

Federal Register / Vol. 69, No. 227 / Friday, November 26, 2004 / Rules and Regulations 68805

summaries shall address the date/time 

of accident, agency/establishment 

named and location, and consequences, 

description of operation and the 

accident, causal factors, applicable 

standards and their effectiveness, and 

agency corrective/preventive actions.

Note to § 1960.70: The requirements of this 

section are in addition to the requirements 

for reporting fatalities and multiple 

hospitalization incidents to OSHA under 29 

CFR 1904.39.

§ 1960.71 Agency annual reports. 

(a) The Act and E.O. 12196 require all 

Federal agency heads to submit to the 

Secretary an annual report on their 

agency’s occupational safety and health 

program, containing such information as 

the Secretary prescribes. 

(1) Each agency must submit to the 

Secretary by January 1 of each year a 

report describing the agency’s 

occupational safety and health program 

of the previous fiscal year and objectives 

for the current fiscal year. The report 

shall include a summary of the agency’s 

self-evaluation findings as required by 

§ 1960.78(b). 

(2) The Secretary must provide the 

agencies with the guidelines and format 

for the reports at the time they are 

requested. 

(3) The agency reports will be used in 

preparing the Secretary’s report to the 

President. 

(b) The Secretary will submit to the 

President by October 1 of each year a 

summary report of the status of the 

occupational safety and health of 

Federal employees based on agency 

reports, evaluations of individual 

agency progress and problems in 

correcting unsafe or unhealthful 

working conditions, and 

recommendations for improving their 

performance.

§§ 1960.72–1960.74 [Reserved]

[FR Doc. 04–25955 Filed 11–24–04; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4510–26–P

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

30 CFR Part 204

RIN 1010–AC30

States’ Decisions on Participating in 

Accounting and Auditing Relief for 

Federal Oil and Gas Marginal 

Properties

AGENCY: Minerals Management Service, 

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of States’ decisions to 

participate or not participate in 

accounting and auditing relief for 

Federal oil and gas marginal properties 

located in their State for calendar year 

2005. 

SUMMARY: The Minerals Management 

Service’s (MMS) final regulations 

providing accounting and auditing relief 

for marginal Federal oil and gas 

properties, published on September 13, 

2004 (69 FR 55076), require MMS to 

notify industry of the decisions by 

States concerned to allow or not to 

allow one or both forms of relief in their 

State by publishing the decisions in the 

Federal Register. As required under the 

regulation, MMS provided those States 

that receive a portion of the Federal 

royalties with a list of qualifying 

marginal Federal oil and gas properties 

located in their State so that each 

affected State could decide whether to 

participate in one or both relief options. 

This Notice provides the decisions by 

the States concerned under the 

Accounting and Auditing Relief for 

Marginal Properties rule (rule) to allow 

one or both types of relief.

DATES: Effective Date: January 1, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mary Williams, Manager, Federal 

Onshore Oil and Gas Compliance and 

Asset Management, telephone (303) 

231–3403, FAX (303) 231–3744, e-mail 

to mary.williams@mms.gov, or P.O. Box 

25165, MS 392B2, Denver Federal 

Center, Denver, Colorado 80225–0165.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Introduction: The rule implemented 

certain provisions of section 7 of the 

Federal Oil and Gas Royalty 

Simplification and Fairness Act of 1996. 

The rule provides two options for relief: 

(1) notification-based relief for annual 

reporting, and (2) other requested relief, 

as proposed by industry and approved 

by MMS and the State concerned. The 

rule requires that MMS publish by 

December 1 of each year, a list of the 

States concerned and their decision on 

marginal property relief. 

To qualify for the first option of relief 

(notification-based relief) for Calendar 

Year 2005, properties must have 

produced less than 1,000 barrels-of-oilequivalent (BOE) per year for the base 

period (July 1, 2003—June 30, 2004). 

Annual reporting relief will begin on 

January 1, 2005, with the annual report 

and payment due February 28, 2006 

(unless an estimated payment is on file, 

which will move the due date to March 

31, 2006). 

To qualify for the second option of 

relief (other requested relief), properties 

must have produced less than 15 BOE 

per well per day for the base period. 

The following table shows states with 

marginal properties from which a 

portion of the royalties are shared 

between MMS and the state and their 

decision to allow one or both forms of 

relief.

State concerned Participating in notification-based relief?

(less than 1,000 BOE per year) 

Participating in request-based relief?

(less than 15 BOE per well per day) 

Alabama ............................................................. No ..................................................................... No. 

Arkansas ............................................................ No ..................................................................... No. 

California ............................................................ No ..................................................................... No. 

Colorado ............................................................ No ..................................................................... No. 

Kansas ............................................................... Yes ................................................................... No. 

Louisiana ........................................................... Yes ................................................................... Yes. 

Michigan ............................................................ Yes ................................................................... No. 

Montana ............................................................. Yes ................................................................... No. 

North Dakota ..................................................... No ..................................................................... No. 

New Mexico ....................................................... No ..................................................................... No. 

Nevada .............................................................. No ..................................................................... No. 

Oklahoma .......................................................... Yes ................................................................... Yes. 

South Dakota ..................................................... No ..................................................................... No. 

Utah ................................................................... No ..................................................................... No. 

Wyoming ............................................................ Yes ................................................................... No.