Atlanta Attorney Explains New OSHA Requirement on Recording Employee Commuting Injuries

Micah Dickie recently helped HR Dive and SHRM make sense of a new Letter of Interpretation (LOI) issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The LOI explains that an employee required to return to the workplace outside of his normal commute is engaged in a work activity as a "condition of employment," which makes any resulting injury “work-related,” which means that it must be recorded on the OSHA 300 Log.

“An employee's normal commute — that is, travel from home to work or from work to home — ends once the employee arrives at work or at home,” he explained to HR Dive. An injury sustained during an employee's normal commute is not recordable on the OSHA 300 Log.

However, in an emergent circumstance, such as the scenario spelled out in the LOI, where an employer calls an employee back to the workplace, and the employee sustains an injury or illness during that non-standard commute, while "traveling in the interest of the employer," the injury or illness "meets the recording criteria for that 300 Log," said Micah.

Read the full articles in SHRM (subscription required) and HR Dive.