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OSHA Form 301 is the Injury and Illness Incident Report, the individual case record covered employers must complete within seven calendar days of learning that a work-related injury or illness is recordable, documenting how the incident happened. An equivalent form, such as a carrier's first report of injury, may be substituted.
Where the Form 300 log lists cases in summary rows and the Form 300A totals them for the year, Form 301 captures the detail of a single case: the employee's name and job title, the date and time of the incident and of the start of work that day, where the event occurred, what the employee was doing before the incident, what happened, the specific injury or illness, the object or substance that directly harmed the employee, treating physician and facility, and whether the employee was treated in an emergency room or hospitalized overnight.
An equivalent form may be used in place of the OSHA recordkeeping forms if it contains the same information and is as readable and understandable. Many employers substitute the first report of injury filed with their workers' compensation carrier, which is permitted when the substitute captures every required field. Records are retained for five years following the year they cover.
Access rules matter and are frequently misunderstood. Employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives have rights to copies, though a union representative's right is limited to the portion of the form that describes the incident rather than the full record containing personal information. Employers must also protect privacy for certain case types, such as injuries to an intimate body part or sexual assaults, by omitting the employee's name from the log and keeping a separate confidential list.
Yes, when it captures everything the OSHA form requires and is as readable and understandable. Many employers substitute the carrier's first report for exactly this reason. Compare the substitute field by field before relying on it, because a missing element makes the record incomplete.
Employees, former employees, and their personal representatives can obtain copies of the record about their own case. An authorized employee representative, such as a union, is limited to the portion describing how the incident occurred rather than the full form with personal details.
Certain case types, including injuries to an intimate body part and sexual assaults, are treated as privacy cases. The employee's name is left off the log and a separate confidential list links the case number to the person, so the posted and shared records do not identify them.