To Post or Not to Post?

By now those of you who are still required to maintain OSHA’s form 300 have had the Form 300A posted since Feb. 1 and it will remain posted until April 30.  This form is a summary of the total number of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred last year.  Remember to post the form 300A, not the OSHA 30 log.  The form must be displayed in a common area wherever notices to employees are usually posted.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2002, OSHA partially exempted industries in certain Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes from recordkeeping.  That is unless the employer is asked in writing to do so by OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), or a state agency operating under the authority of OSHA or the BLS.  However, even if you are partially exempt, all employers, including those partially exempted by reason of company size or industry classification, must report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in a fatality or the hospitalization of three or more employees (see 29CFR1904.39).

For more than 60 years, the SIC system has been used as a structure for the collection, aggregation, presentation and analysis of the U.S. economy.  The system places industries in groups of establishments primarily engaged in producing or handling the same product or group of products or in rendering the same services.  When this system was developed in the 1930s, manufacturing dominated the U.S. economic scene.  Even though the SIC system has been revised numerous times over the years, it has received criticism about its ability to handle rapid changes in the U.S. economy.  Industries such as information services, new forms of health care provision, expansion of services, and high tech manufacturing are examples of industrial changes that cannot be studied under the current SIC system.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) provides statistical programs that focus on emerging economic activities.  This new tool ensures that economic statistics reflect our changing economy.  In this system every sector of the economy has been restructured and redefined.  NAICS uses a six digit coding system to classify all economic activity into twenty industry sectors.  The SIC uses a four digit code.  This six digit code allows for the identification of 1,170 industries compared to the 1,004 found in the SIC system.

Dental laboratories are classified under SIC as 8072 and under NAICS as 339116.  NAICS furthers subdivides us into two other classifications:

33911601 Dental Laboratories

3391160100  Dentures, artificial teeth, and orthodontic appliances manufactured to order for the dental profession (prescription basis)

So what’s the importance of this for a dental laboratory?  Should you receive a complaint or be inspected by OSHA, you need to inquire as to your SIC or NAICS classification code.  If you are classified under SIC 8072 then you fall under the partial exemption for recordkeeping.  One of my clients who was visited by OSHA was placed under the manufacturing classification so we requested that OSHA place them under SIC 8072.  That presented no problem for OSHA and provided the partial exemption for the dental laboratory.

Those states operating under their own OSHA plan may elect to adopt the partial exemption, but are not required to do so.  In reviewing the state plans, it appears that dental laboratories in the following states still need to complete the injury and illness forms/logs and post them from Feb. 1 through April 30:

•    Hawaii
•    Minnesota
•    Washington

If you are located where there is a state OSHA plan, you can confirm this status by contacting your state safety and health office.  The phone number of your state OSHA office is located on your job safety poster.  You can also retrieve this information from OSHA’s web site at www.osha.gov, scroll down on the right side of the Home Page to State Partners link and then click on your state to locate a phone number.  While you’re in your state page review the information that is available to you.  Subscribe to newsletters or free publications.

To better understand how to complete the forms go to www.osha.gov/recordkeeping/OSHArecordkeepingforms.pdf.  This provides the forms and also detailed information on how to complete them.  Call SafeLink if you still have questions about this recordkeeping requirement.