Reporting Work Related Death or Serious Injury or Illness to Cal/OSHA
Most employers know by now that Cal/OSHA has to be notified about a work-related death or serious injury or illness. Title 8, Section 330 defines a serious injury as: Any injury or illness occurring in a place of employment or in connection with any employment which requires inpatient hospitalization for a period in excess of 24 hours for other than medical observation or in which an employee suffers a loss of any member of the body or suffers any serious degree of permanent disfigurement.
Employers can contact Cal/OSHA to report a work related death or serious injury or illness 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. To find out which Cal/OSHA office you need to contact you can go to the following link and input the industry and zip code: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/report-accident-or-injury.html
Cal/OSHA requires you to have as much of the following information as possible when you call:
- Time and date of accident/event
- Employer’s name, address and telephone number
- Name and job title of the person reporting the accident
- Address of accident/event site
- Name of person to contact at accident/event site
- Name and address of injured employee(s)
- Nature of injuries
- Location where injured employee(s) was/were taken for medical treatment
- List and identity of other law enforcement agencies present at the accident/event site
- Description of accident/event and whether the accident scene or instrumentality has been altered.
Another alternative to calling is emailing this information to: caloshaaccidentreport@tel-us.com
Cal/OSHA has to be notified within 24 hours of the employer learning about hospital admittance beyond observation. Reporting is also required if the worker requires surgery at a later date pertaining to his/her work-related injury. Unfortunately this means that to comply with current regulations employers have to monitor their injured workers for a prolonged amount of time. We’re keeping an eye on AB 708 which pertains to local fire and police agencies responding/reporting an accident involving occupational injury, because there has also been discussion about adding text stating employers will not be in violation of the regulation notification requirement in the event that the injury occurred well before hospital admittance.
As of now AB 708 has not yet made its way to the Governor’s desk for signature and was awaiting a second hearing as of August 2017. We will keep you posted on any important changes.