What does OSHA require construction employers to record?

Every work-related injury or illness that goes beyond first aid. OSHA’s recordkeeping rule (29 CFR 1904) requires covered employers to log each recordable case on the OSHA 300 log within seven days, record the specifics on a 301 incident form, and post a 300A annual summary of the year’s totals from February 1 to April 30. A case is recordable if it involves death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant diagnosis. First-aid-only cases are not recordable. Small employers (ten or fewer) and certain low-hazard industries are partially exempt, but most construction firms must keep these records.

What is the difference between the OSHA 300 log and the 300A summary?

The 300 log is the running list of individual cases; the 300A is the year-end total. The 300 log records each recordable case as it happens, with the employee, the injury, and how the case was classified (days away, restricted, or other). The 300A summary rolls those cases up into annual totals, total recordables, total days-away cases, total restricted cases, and the hours worked, and that single sheet is what gets posted for employees and used to calculate the company’s annual safety rates. The hours-worked figure on the 300A is the denominator for TRIR, DART, and LTIR, which is why an accurate hours count matters as much as an accurate case count.

Does an OSHA recordable mean the employer did something wrong?

No. Recordability is a recordkeeping classification, not a finding of fault. A case is recordable because of its medical outcome, treatment beyond first aid, a day away, a restriction, and not because of who caused it or whether a rule was broken. A diligent contractor with a strong safety program can still have recordable cases, and recording one is simply meeting the legal obligation, not admitting negligence. Confusing the two leads to the worst outcome in safety: pressure not to record, which hides the very data a safety program needs. The record exists to measure and improve, which is also why leading indicators matter alongside these lagging counts.

Construction Glossary · Safety

OSHARecordkeeping

The agency sets the rules, but the number that follows a contractor everywhere is the one on the log. Every safety rate starts here.

Definition

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is the U.S. agency that sets and enforces workplace safety rules. In construction its most visible footprint is recordkeeping: employers log every work-related injury or illness beyond first aid on the OSHA 300 log, total it on the year-end 300A summary, and detail each case on a 301 form. Those counts are what every safety rate, TRIR, DART, and LTIR, is calculated from.

What lands on the log

Recordability is a test, not a judgment. A first-aid-only case falls out; anything beyond first aid is recordable, goes on the 300 log, and rolls into the 300A, whose totals and hours drive every rate.

The three forms

OSHA recordkeeping is three documents that work together, from the single case to the posted annual summary.

Form	What it holds	When
300 log	Each recordable case, with its classification	Logged within 7 days of the case
301 form	The detail of one incident	Filed with each case
300A summary	Annual totals + hours worked	Posted Feb 1 – Apr 30

The 300A totals feed the TRIR, DART, and LTIR rates.

How POD handles the counts

POD reads the recordable, first-aid, and lost-time counts from your daily reports and safety records and shows them on the safety tab, with the real number when it is present and an upload prompt when it is not, so the field record and the running totals live together. What POD does not do is decide recordability for you or file your OSHA 300 and 300A, that classification against OSHA’s rules is yours, and it does not compute OSHA citation exposure. POD keeps the counts honest and in one place; the legal recordkeeping stays with you.

OSHA 300 log requirements guide

Frequently asked questions

The log is the start, not the score

Counts on the 300A become rates once you divide by hours. The first and most watched is the total recordable incident rate.

TRIR Back to the Glossary

Related terms

Recordable Incident TRIR DART EMR