On October 10, 2018, California’s Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“DOSH”) issued a notice of proposed emergency regulation requiring California employers to begin submitting their 300A Form to the Federal OSHA portal, Injury Tracking Application (“ITA“).  Specifically the regulation, if approved, will require the electronic submission of the 300A Form for each establishment with 250 or more employees at any time during the previous calendar year and for establishments with 20 or more employees but fewer than 250 employees in designated industries.  On October 18, 2018, DOSH issued a notice of amended notice of proposed emergency regulatory action.  This emergency regulation is based in part on Federal OSHA’s announcement in April 2018 that affected employers is State Plan states were required to submit electronically their 300A Forms even if the State Plan had not completed adoption of its own state rule.

According to DOSH,

The Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health (“the Division”) is proposing to adopt emergency amendments to Sections 14300.35 and 14300.41 of Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations. These proposed amendments would require designated employers in California to submit electronically certain occupational injury and illness information to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”), with the first submission due by December 31, 2018.

Prior to submitting a proposed emergency regulatory action for approval by the Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”), the agency must provide notice.  Interested parties are given five calendar days to submit comments on the proposed emergency regulations.  Then OAL has ten calendar days to review and make a decision on the proposed emergency regulation. Once the emergency regulation is approved it will be effective for 180 days.  During the 180 days, DOSH will move forward with the normal rulemaking process, including a public comment period. Based on the amended notice of proposed emergency regulatory action issued on October 18, 2018, the emergency regulation could be approved by November 3, 2018.

Employers in California should be prepared to submit their 2017 300A Forms to Federal OSHA no later than December 31, 2018 and their 2018 300A Forms no later than March 2, 2019.