Document ID: OSHA-2010-0056-0003
Agency: osha
Document Type: Notice
Title: OSHA-7 Form; Notice of Alleged Safety and Health Hazard; Extension of the Office and Management and Budget's Approval of Information Collection (Paperwork) Requirements
Posted Date: 2014-01-24T05:00Z

[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 16 (Friday, January 24, 2014)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4180-4181]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-01357]

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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Occupational Safety and Health Administration

[Docket No. OSHA-2010-0064]

OSHA-7 Form (``Notice of Alleged Safety and Health Hazard''); 
Extension of the Office of Management and Budget's Approval of 
Information Collection (Paperwork) Requirements

AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.

ACTION: Request for public comments.

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SUMMARY: OSHA solicits public comments concerning its proposal to 
extend the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) approval of the 
information collection requirements specified in the OSHA-7 Form.

DATES: Comments must be submitted (postmarked, sent or received) by 
March 25, 2014.

ADDRESSES: Electronically: You may submit comments and attachments 
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting 
comments.
    Facsimile: If your comments, including attachments, are not longer 
than 10 pages you may fax them to the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-
1648.
    Mail, hand delivery, express mail, messenger, or courier service: 
When using this method, you must submit a copy of your comments and 
attachments to the OSHA Docket Office, Docket No. OSHA-2010-0064, U.S. 
Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 
Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210. 
Deliveries (hand, express mail, messenger, and courier service) are 
accepted during the Department of Labor's and Docket Office's normal 
business hours, 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., ET.
    Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and the 
OSHA docket number (OSHA-2010-0064) for the Information Collection 
Request (ICR). All comments, including any personal information you 
provide, are placed in the public docket without change, and may be 
made available online at http://www.regulations.gov. For further 
information on submitting comments see the ``Public Participation'' 
heading in the section of this notice titled SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
    Docket: To read or download comments or other materials in the 
docket, go to http://regulations.gov or the OSHA Docket Office at the 
address above. All documents in the docket (including this Federal 
Register notice) are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index; 
however, some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not 
publically available to read or download from the Web site. All 
submissions, including copyrighted material, are available for 
inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office. You may contact Theda 
Kenney at the address below to obtain a copy of the ICR.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Todd Owen or Theda Kenney, Directorate 
of Standards and Guidance, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-3909, 
200 Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone (202) 693-
2222.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

I. Background

    The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce 
paperwork and respondent (i.e., workers filing occupational safety or 
health complaints) burden, conducts a preclearance consultation program 
to provide the public with an opportunity to comment on proposed and 
continuing information collection requirements in accord with the 
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA-95) (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). 
This program ensures that information is in the desired format, 
reporting burden (time and costs) is minimal, collection instruments 
are clearly understood, and OSHA's estimate of the information 
collection burden is accurate. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 
of 1970 (the OSH Act) (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.) authorizes information 
collection by employers as necessary or appropriate for enforcement of 
the OSH Act or for developing information regarding the causes and 
prevention of occupational injuries, illnesses, and accidents (29 
U.S.C. 657). The OSH Act also requires that OSHA obtain such 
information with minimum burden upon employers, especially those 
operating small businesses, and to reduce to the extent feasible 
unnecessary duplication of efforts in obtaining information (29 U.S.C. 
657).
    Under paragraphs (a) and (c) of 29 CFR 1903.11 (``Complaints by 
employees'') workers and their representatives may notify the OSHA area 
director or an OSHA compliance officer of safety and health hazards 
regulated by the Agency that they believe exist in their workplaces at 
any time. These provisions state further that this notification must be 
in writing and ``shall set forth with reasonable particularity the 
grounds for the notice, and shall be signed by the employee or 
representative of the employee.''
    In addition to providing specific hazard information to the Agency, 
paragraph (a) permits workers/worker representatives to request an 
inspection of the workplace. Paragraph (c) also addresses situations in 
which workers/worker representatives may provide the information 
directly to the OSHA compliance officer during an inspection. An 
employer's former workers may also submit complaints to the Agency.
    To address the requirements of paragraphs (a) and (c), especially 
the requirement that the information be in writing, the Agency 
developed the OSHA-7 Form; this form standardized and simplified the 
hazard reporting process. For paragraph (a), they may complete an OSHA-
7 Form obtained from the Agency's Web site and then send it to OSHA 
online, or deliver a hardcopy of the form to the OSHA area office by 
mail or facsimile, or by hand. They may also write a letter containing 
the information and hand deliver it to the area office, or send it by 
mail or facsimile. In addition, they may provide the information orally 
to the OSHA area office or another party (e.g., a federal safety and 
health committee for federal workers), in which case the area office or 
other party completes the hard copy version of the form. For the 
typical situation addressed by paragraph (c), a worker/worker 
representative informs an OSHA compliance officer orally of the alleged 
hazard during an inspection, and the compliance officer then

[[Page 4181]]

completes the hard copy version of the OSHA-7 Form; occasionally, the 
worker/worker representative provides the compliance officer with the 
information on the hard copy version of the OSHA-7 Form.
    The information on the hard copy version of the OSHA-7 Form 
includes information about the employer and alleged hazards, including: 
the establishment's name; the site's address and telephone and 
facsimile numbers; the name and telephone number of the management 
official; the type of business; a description and the specific location 
of the hazards, including the approximate number of workers exposed or 
threatened by the hazards; and whether or not the worker/worker 
representative informed another government agency about the hazards 
(and the name of the agency if so informed).
    Additional information on the hard copy version of the form 
concerns the complainant including: whether or not the complaintant is 
a worker or a worker representative, or for information provided 
orally, a member of a federal safety and health committee or another 
party (with space to specify the party); the complainant's name, 
telephone number, and address; and the complainant's signature 
attesting that they believe a violation of an OSHA standard exists at 
the named establishment; and the date of the signature. A worker 
representative must also provide the name of the organization they 
represent and their title.
    The information contained in the online version of the OSHA-7 Form 
is similar to the hard copy version. However, the online version 
requests the complainant's email address, and does not ask for the 
site's facsimile number or the complainant's signature and signature 
date.
    The Agency uses the information collected on the OSHA-7 Form to 
determine whether reasonable grounds exist to conduct an inspection of 
the workplace. The description of the hazards, including the number of 
exposed workers, allows the Agency to assess the severity of the 
hazards and the need to expedite the inspection. The completed form 
also provides the employer with notice of the complaint and may serve 
as the basis for obtaining a search warrant if the employer denies the 
Agency access to the workplace.

II. Special Issues for Comment

    OSHA has a particular interest in comments on the following issues:
     Whether the proposed information collection requirements 
are necessary for proper performance of the Agency's functions, 
including whether the information is useful;
     The accuracy of OSHA's estimate of the burden (time and 
costs) of the information collection requirements, including the 
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
     The quality, utility, and clarity of the information 
collected; and
     Ways to minimize the burden on employers who must comply; 
for example, by using automated or other technological information 
collection and transmission techniques.

III. Proposed Actions

    OSHA is requesting that OMB extend its approval of the information 
collection requirements relating to the OSHA-7 Form. The Agency is 
requesting an increase in burden hours from 13,414 to 13,659 (a total 
increase of 245 burden hours). The Agency will summarize the comments 
submitted in response to this notice and will include this summary in 
the request to OMB to extend the approval of the information collection 
requirements.
    Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
    Title: Notice of Alleged Safety and Health Hazards, OSHA-7 Form.
    OMB Control Number: 1218-0064.
    Affected Public: Individuals or households.
    Number of Responses: 50,641.
    Frequency of Responses: On occasion.
    Average Time per Response: Varies from 15 minutes (.25 hour) to 
communicate the required information orally to the Agency to 25 minutes 
(.42 hour) to provide the information in writing and send it to OSHA.
    Estimated Total Burden Hours: 13,659.
    Estimated Cost (Operation and Maintenance): $532

IV. Public Participation--Submission of Comments on this Notice and 
Internet Access to Comments and Submissions

    You may submit comments in response to this document as follows: 
(1) electronically at http://regulations.gov, which is the Federal 
eRulemaking Portal; (2) by facsimile (fax); or (3) by hard copy. All 
comments, attachments, and other materials must identify the Agency 
name and the OSHA docket number for the ICR (Docket No. OSHA-2010-
0064). You may supplement electronic submissions by uploading document 
files electronically. If you wish to mail additional materials in 
reference to an electronic or facsimile submission, you must submit 
them to the OSHA Docket Office (see the section of this notice titled 
ADDRESSES). The additional materials must clearly identify your 
electronic comments by your name, date, and the docket number so the 
Agency can attach them to your comments.
    Because of security procedures, the use of regular mail may cause a 
significant delay in the receipt of comments. For information about 
security procedures concerning the delivery of materials by hand, 
express delivery, messenger, or courier service, please contact the 
OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350, (TTY (877) 889-5627).
    Comments and submissions are posted without change at http://www.regulations.gov. Therefore, OSHA cautions commenters about 
submitting personal information such as social security numbers and 
date of birth. Although all submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index, some information (e.g., copyrighted 
material) is not publically available to read or download from this Web 
site. All submissions, including copyrighted material, are available 
for inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office. Information on 
using the http://www.regulations.gov Web site to submit comments and 
access the docket is available at the Web site's ``User Tips'' link. 
Contact the OSHA Docket Office for information about materials not 
available from the Web site, and for assistance in using the Internet 
to locate docket submissions.

V. Authority and Signature

    David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, Assistant Secretary of Labor for 
Occupational Safety and Health, directed the preparation of this 
notice. The authority for this notice is the paperwork Reduction Act of 
1995 (44 U.S.C. 3506 et seq.) and Secretary of Labor's Order No. 1-2012 
(77 FR 3912, January 25, 2012).

    Signed at Washington, DC, on January 17, 2014.
David Michaels,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. 2014-01357 Filed 1-23-14; 8:45 am]
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