October 29, 2025
ShareMastering OSHA Forms: Your Complete Guide to Forms 300, 300A, and 301 – Part 1
This discussion is the first in a three-part series. Part one focuses on OSHA Forms 300 and 300A. Part two focuses on OSHA Form 301. Part three focuses on how these forms work together and best practices for recordkeeping to ensure OSHA compliance.
Every year, employers receive OSHA citations not because their workplaces are unsafe, but because they filled out the wrong form, missed a deadline, or misunderstood which incidents to record. The cost? OSHA penalties reaching into six figures for repeat violations, increased inspection scrutiny, and credibility problems that extend into workers’ compensation proceedings and workplace injury litigation.
Here’s what catches most safety professionals off guard: OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301 aren’t interchangeable paperwork—they’re distinct regulatory instruments with different purposes, requirements, and timelines. Using the wrong form, completing forms incorrectly, or missing critical deadlines can transform routine recordkeeping into OSHA compliance failures that trigger enforcement actions.
The distinction matters because OSHA recordkeeping violations rank among the most frequently cited OSHA violations year after year. Yet these violations are almost entirely preventable with proper understanding of OSHA form requirements, systematic completion procedures, and attention to regulatory deadlines.
This guide provides the detailed, practical information employers need to master OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301—what each form requires, when to complete them, how they work together, and the common mistakes that trigger OSHA violations.
What Are OSHA Forms 300, 300A and 301? Understanding the OSHA Recordkeeping Triad
OSHA recordkeeping compliance centers on three interconnected forms that work together to create a comprehensive workplace injury and illness tracking system. Understanding how these OSHA forms relate to each other is essential before diving into individual form requirements.
OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses): This is your running log of all recordable workplace injuries and illnesses throughout the calendar year. Think of OSHA Form 300 as your master list—a year-long record showing every recordable incident, organized chronologically.
OSHA Form 300A (Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses): This form summarizes the totals from your OSHA 300 Log for the entire calendar year. OSHA Form 300A is what you post publicly for employees and, for many employers, submit electronically to OSHA. This summary form serves as your annual report card on workplace injuries and illnesses.
OSHA Form 301 (Injury and Illness Incident Report): This form captures detailed information about each individual recordable injury or illness. While OSHA Form 300 gives you the list and Form 300A provides the summary, OSHA Form 301 tells the complete story of what happened in each incident.
The regulatory framework: These OSHA forms implement the recordkeeping requirements found in 29 CFR 1904, which stems from OSHA’s statutory authority under Section 8(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Compliance with OSHA form requirements isn’t optional for covered employers—it’s a federal legal mandate with enforcement consequences.
OSHA Form 300: The Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
What is OSHA Form 300?
OSHA Form 300 serves as your establishment’s running log of all recordable work-related injuries and illnesses. Every time a recordable incident occurs, you add a line entry to this log with key information about the employee and incident. The OSHA 300 Log creates a chronological record of workplace injuries and illnesses throughout the calendar year.
What Information is Required to be on OSHA Form 300?
Each entry on your OSHA Form 300 must include specific information across multiple columns:
Employee Information: Case number, employee name, job title, and date of birth. Note that for privacy concern cases (involving privacy-sensitive conditions), you may use “Privacy Case” instead of the employee’s name.
Incident Information: The date the injury or illness occurred, where the event occurred (location within your establishment), a description of the injury or illness including the body part affected, and how the incident happened.
Classification Information: You must check the appropriate column indicating whether the case involved death, days away from work, job transfer or restriction, or other recordable cases. For cases involving days away or job restrictions, you must track and record the actual number of calendar days.
Injury vs. Illness Classification: OSHA Form 300 requires employers to classify each case as either an injury or illness, then further specify the type of injury or category of illness using the checkboxes provided on the form.
What are the Timeline Requirements for OSHA Form 300?
When to complete entries: You must enter each recordable injury or illness on the OSHA 300 Log within seven calendar days of receiving information that a recordable case has occurred. This seven-day OSHA timeline starts when you learn both that a workplace injury or illness has occurred AND that the incident is recordable under OSHA criteria.
When to update entries: You must update OSHA Form 300 entries when the case classification changes or when the count of days away from work or days of job restriction changes. These updates must occur within seven calendar days of receiving the new information.
Annual retention: You must retain the OSHA 300 Log for five years following the end of the calendar year to which it relates. During this five-year retention period, you must update stored OSHA 300 Logs if the case classification changes (for example, if an injury initially classified as “other recordable” later results in days away from work).
OSHA Form 300 Common Completion Mistakes
Privacy case confusion: Employers often fail to recognize which cases qualify for privacy protection, unnecessarily identifying employees in cases involving HIV infection, hepatitis, tuberculosis, needlestick injuries, cuts and lacerations involving contamination by another person’s blood, or injuries to intimate body parts.
Days away/restriction calculation errors: The most frequent OSHA Form 300 error involves miscounting days away from work or days of job restriction. Remember: you count calendar days, not workdays, and you don’t count the day the injury occurred or any day the employee wouldn’t have worked anyway. You cap the total at 180 calendar days per case.
Classification mistakes: Many employers incorrectly classify cases on OSHA Form 300, particularly struggling with the distinction between “job transfer or restriction” versus “other recordable cases,” or failing to properly classify the type of injury or illness using the required checkboxes.
Delayed entries: Waiting too long to make OSHA Form 300 entries violates OSHA’s seven-calendar-day requirement. The timeline begins when you have knowledge both that an incident occurred and that it meets OSHA recordability criteria—not when medical treatment concludes or the employee returns to work.
OSHA Form 300A: The Summary of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses
What is OSHA Form 300A?
OSHA Form 300A is your annual summary of all recordable workplace injuries and illnesses from the previous calendar year. This OSHA form totals up the information from your OSHA 300 Log and presents it in summary format. Unlike the OSHA 300 Log which lists individual cases, OSHA Form 300A provides aggregate numbers for your establishment.
What Information is Required to be on OSHA Form 300A?
The OSHA Form 300A includes several key sections that must be accurately completed:
Establishment Information: Your company name, establishment name and address, and the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for your primary business activity at the establishment. This information must be precise—OSHA uses NAICS codes to categorize industries and evaluate safety performance across sectors.
Employment Information: The annual average number of employees who worked at the establishment and the total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year. These calculations affect your OSHA injury and illness rates, which OSHA and others use for safety benchmarking.
Injury and Illness Totals: The number of cases with days away from work, cases with job transfer or restriction, other recordable cases, total number of deaths, total number of days away from work, and total number of days of job transfer or restriction. These totals come directly from your completed OSHA 300 Log.
Injury and Illness Types: Separate totals for injuries and different categories of illnesses, including skin disorders, respiratory conditions, poisonings, hearing loss, and all other illnesses. OSHA Form 300A requires this breakdown to provide visibility into patterns of workplace health conditions.
Certification: A company executive must certify the OSHA Form 300A by signing and dating the form. The certification statement attests that the company “has examined the OSHA 300 Log and that I reasonably believe, based on my knowledge of the process by which the information was recorded, that the annual summary is correct and complete.”
What Are the Timeline Requirements for OSHA Form 300A?
Completion deadline: You must complete your OSHA Form 300A by February 1 following the end of the calendar year covered by the form. This means your 2025 OSHA Form 300A must be completed by February 1, 2026.
Posting requirement: You must post your completed, certified OSHA Form 300A in a conspicuous place where notices to employees are customarily posted. The posting must occur from February 1 through April 30 of the year following the calendar year covered by the form—a three-month posting period.
Electronic submission: Many employers must electronically submit OSHA Form 300A data to OSHA. Establishments with 250 or more employees that are currently required to keep OSHA records, and establishments with 20-249 employees in certain high-hazard industries, must submit Form 300A data annually by March 2. OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA) facilitates this electronic submission.
Retention requirement: You must retain the OSHA Form 300A for five years following the end of the calendar year to which it relates, alongside the OSHA 300 Log it summarizes.
What are the OSHA Form 300A Certification Requirements?
OSHA requires a specific company executive to certify your Form 300A—not just any manager or safety professional. The certifying official must be one of the following:
- An owner of the company (for sole proprietorships or partnerships)
- An officer of the corporation (for corporations)
- The highest-ranking company official working at the establishment (for establishments separate from the corporate office)
- The immediate supervisor of the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment
This OSHA certification requirement creates accountability at the executive level for recordkeeping accuracy. OSHA views falsely certified forms as evidence of willful violations, which carry substantially higher penalties.
OSHA Form 300A Common Completion Mistakes
Calculation errors: The most common OSHA Form 300A mistake involves arithmetic errors when totaling numbers from the OSHA 300 Log. Double-check that your summary accurately reflects all cases recorded during the calendar year.
Employee hours calculation problems: Many employers incorrectly calculate total employee hours worked, either by using estimates instead of actual records or by failing to include all employees (particularly temporary workers, contractors working under your supervision, or employees who separated during the year).
Wrong certifying official: Having the wrong person sign OSHA Form 300A constitutes a recordkeeping violation. The certifying official must meet OSHA’s specific requirements based on your company structure.
Posting violations: Failing to post your OSHA Form 300A for the full February 1 to April 30 period, posting it in a location that’s not easily visible to employees, or neglecting to post it at all are common OSHA violations that trigger citations during inspections.
Electronic submission failures: Covered employers who fail to electronically submit their OSHA Form 300A data by the March 2 deadline face OSHA citations. Technical difficulties don’t excuse late submissions—OSHA expects employers to submit data well before the deadline to allow time for any submission problems.
The Hidden Costs of Recordkeeping Failures: Beyond OSHA Penalties
Most employers focus on OSHA’s direct penalties when evaluating recordkeeping compliance, but the collateral consequences often dwarf the citation costs. Consider these ripple effects:
- Experience Modification Rates: Recordkeeping violations can prompt workers’ compensation insurers to audit your injury records, potentially resulting in experience mod recalculations that increase premiums for years.
- Contractual Compliance: General contractors increasingly require OSHA recordkeeping compliance in subcontractor prequalification. A recordkeeping citation can disqualify you from bidding major projects.
- Litigation Discovery: In workplace injury litigation, plaintiff attorneys routinely request OSHA 300 Logs. Inconsistent or incomplete records become powerful evidence suggesting broader safety program failures, even when the recordkeeping error is unrelated to the incident being litigated.
- Regulatory Targeting: OSHA uses electronic Form 300A submissions to identify high-hazard establishments for programmed inspections. Accurate recordkeeping isn’t just about compliance—it’s about whether you appear on OSHA’s inspection radar.
The Evolution of OSHA Recordkeeping: What’s Coming
OSHA’s electronic reporting requirements represent more than digitization—they signal a fundamental shift toward data-driven enforcement. As OSHA accumulates years of electronic Form 300A submissions, expect increasingly sophisticated algorithmic targeting based on injury rate comparisons, year-over-year trends, and industry benchmarking. Employers should view current recordkeeping compliance not just as meeting today’s requirements but also establishing the foundation for demonstrating safety performance improvement in an environment where OSHA has unprecedented analytical capabilities.
OSHA Attorney Guidance on OSHA Forms and Recordkeeping Compliance
Don’t let OSHA form uncertainties compromise your recordkeeping compliance. Whether you’re struggling with complex form completion questions, need help establishing systematic OSHA recordkeeping procedures, face OSHA inspections involving recordkeeping accuracy, or require guidance on multi-establishment recordkeeping obligations, experienced legal counsel makes the difference between costly violations and effective compliance.
Contact me for comprehensive OSHA compliance counsel tailored to your workplace safety needs. With extensive experience in OSHA enforcement defense and workplace safety compliance, I provide the strategic guidance safety professionals need for OSHA recordkeeping success.
Gary L. Brown
Chair, Construction Law Division
Kelley Kronenberg-Fort Lauderdale, FL.
(954) 370-9970
Email
Bio
Gary L. Brown practices occupational safety and health law at Kelley Kronenberg, where he counsels employers on OSHA compliance, workplace safety programs, and OSHA regulatory defense matters. He is also Board Certified in Construction Law by the Florida Bar and chairs the firm’s Construction Law Division where he oversees the firm’s statewide construction litigation practice and national OSHA enforcement defense.