COTTON
Ginners Marketplace COTTON FARMING IS THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GINNING INDUSTRY.
Ginning Industry Continues To Focus On OSHA Issues
Looking to boost speed in your hydraulic lines? Book your project early to make it happen this year!
We discussed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses as it progressed last year. The first reporting deadline for 2016 data was Dec. 1, 2017. It was moved back several times as industry pushed to get the rule repealed. But ultimately OSHA refused, and the rule did go into effect. For 2017 data, the deadline is July 1, 2018, but you may want to get this done now. The first question is, “What data needs to be submitted?” For cotton gins, it is data contained on the OSHA 300A form. For many years, gins have been required to enter each work-related injury or illness on this form. At the end of the year, it must be totaled out, and the summary information added to the OSHA 300A form. For 2017, you should have already completed this process. For 2018, you should be keeping a new OSHA 300 form.
Cotton Ginners Marketplace
Enter Data And Post Forms The 2017 OSHA 300A form should be completed at this point and must be posted in your workplace from Feb. 1 until April 30. If it is not, go to https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/ RKforms.html to access the form and read the instructions for posting it. The OSHA 300 and 300A system has been in place for many years. The new part of the rule requires data from the OSHA 300A form to be entered into the OSHA database. The good news is that for small businesses like cotton gins, it is only the 300A data. Larger businesses must enter all data from the OSHA 300 form, which is significantly more. Since your OSHA 300A form is on the wall, now would be a good time to enter the data. The OSHA reporting website is https://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting/. With the OSHA Injury Reporting Rule in place, we are seeing a higher rate of agency inspections. OSHA inspectors typically collect the OSHA 300 and 300A forms during each inspection. At this point, we don’t know if they are comparing the forms to the entries in the database, but it is probably safe to assume they will begin doing so at some point. If they see you have not entered your data in the system, then that would be a separate violation. This is a fairly simple system to navigate, so
Contact us for a quote!
800-692-4474 • lubbockelectric.com 18 18 COTTON COTTON FARMING FARMING APRIL APRIL 20182018
COTTONFARMING.COM COTTONFARMING.COM