public-service · OSHA injury log access rights
Your Right to a Copy of the OSHA Injury Log
Under 29 CFR §1904.35, workers can request the OSHA 300 Log; employers must supply it by the next business day, free the first time.
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Updated: Sources: 1
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What matters now
- Employees, former employees, personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives can request the OSHA 300 Log.
- Employers must supply the OSHA 300 Log by the end of the next business day.
- An authorized employee representative requesting the OSHA 301 Incident Report must get it within 7 calendar days.
- The first copy of these records must be provided free of charge.
- Employers may not discharge or discriminate against employees for reporting an injury or illness.
Yes. Under federal OSHA recordkeeping rules, “your employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives have the right to access the OSHA injury and illness records” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904). When one of those people asks for the workplace’s OSHA 300 Log, “you must give the requester a copy of the relevant OSHA 300 Log(s) by the end of the next business day” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
This original record-reading guide is a general reading aid, not cited evidence. It does not depict a source record; the article text and source links provide the facts.
Key points
- Employees, former employees, personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives all have a right to request the OSHA 300 Log.
- A request for the Log must be answered “by the end of the next business day” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
- When an authorized employee representative requests the OSHA 301 Incident Report form, which starts with “Tell us about the case” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904), the employer must answer “within 7 calendar days” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
- The employer “may not charge for these copies the first time they are provided” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
- The same rule set also bars retaliation for reporting an injury or illness in the first place.
Who can request the log
The regulation names four categories of requester: “your employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives have the right to access the OSHA injury and illness records” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
How fast the employer must respond
For the OSHA 300 Log itself, the timeline is short: “you must give the requester a copy of the relevant OSHA 300 Log(s) by the end of the next business day” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
A separate, longer timeline applies when an authorized employee representative requests the incident-level detail collected on the OSHA 301 Incident Report form, which opens with the instruction “Tell us about the case” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904). That request must be answered “within 7 calendar days” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
What it can cost
The first copy is free. The rule states the employer “may not charge for these copies the first time they are provided” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
Reporting an injury is protected
The same part of the regulation protects the underlying act of reporting: “You must not discharge or in any manner discriminate against any employee for reporting a work-related injury or illness” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904). It also sets a standard for judging an employer’s injury-reporting procedure: a procedure “is not reasonable if it would deter or discourage a reasonable employee from accurately reporting” (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904).
What this article does not cover
This article answers only what the recordkeeping rule itself requires: who may ask for the OSHA 300 Log, how fast an employer must produce it, and what it may charge. It does not address whether a refusal or delay in any specific workplace situation amounts to a violation of §1904.35, it does not explain how to file a complaint over a denied or delayed request, and it says nothing about a workers’ compensation claim. Anyone facing one of those situations should look beyond this rule for the next step.
Source links
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-29/subtitle-B/chapter-XVII/part-1904