Federal Reporting Requirements

When an employee dies from a work-related incident or three or more employees are hospitalized as a result of a work-related incident, HR professionals must report it within eight hours. The HR representative must orally report the fatality or multiple hospitalizations by telephone or in person to the area office of the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration nearest to the site of the incident. He or she may also use the toll-free central telephone number, (800) 321-6742. If the area office is closed, the HR representative should report the fatality or multiple-hospitalization incident using the 800 number.

Give the following information for each fatality or multiple-hospitalization incident:

• Establishment name
• Location
• Time
• Number of fatalities or hospitalized employees
• Names of injured employees
• The company's contact person and his or her phone number
• A brief description of the incident.
• In cases of heart attacks, the area office director will decide whether to investigate the incident based on the circumstances.

If the HR representative does not learn of a reportable incident at the time it occurs, he or she must make the report within eight hours of the time the incident is reported to the HR representative or to any of the representative's agents or employees.

Source: U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.