§ 14300.35. Employee Involvement.

(a) Basic requirement. Your employees and their representatives must be involved in the recordkeeping system in several ways.

(1) You must inform each employee of how he or she is to report an injury or illness to you.

(2) You must provide limited access to your injury and illness records for your employees and their representatives.

(b) Implementation.

(1) What must I do to make sure that employees report work-related injuries and illnesses to me?

(A) You must set up a way for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses promptly; and

(B) You must tell each employee how to report work-related injuries and illnesses to you.

(2) Do I have to give my employees and their representatives access to the injury and illness records required by this article?

Yes. Your employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and their authorized employee representatives have the right to access the injury and illness records required by this article, with some limitations, as discussed below.

(A) Who is an authorized employee representative?

An authorized employee representative is an authorized collective bargaining agent of employees.

(B) Who is a “personal representative” of an employee or former employee?

A personal representative is:

1. Any person that the employee or former employee designates as such, in writing; or

2. The legal representative of a deceased or legally incapacitated employee or former employee.

(C) If an employee or his or her representative asks for access to the Cal/OSHA Form 300 and annual summary when do I have to provide it?

When an employee, former employee, personal representative, or authorized employee representative asks for copies of your current or stored Cal/OSHA 300 forms or a current or stored annual summary for an establishment the employee or former employee has worked in, you must give the requester a copy of the relevant Cal/OSHA 300 forms and annual summaries by the end of the next business day.

Exception: If your establishment is in SIC Code 781, you must give the requester the information within 7 calendar days.

(D) May I remove the names of the employees or any other information from the Cal/OSHA Form 300 before I give copies to an employee, former employee, or employee representative?

No. You must leave the names on the Cal/OSHA Form 300. However, to protect the privacy of injured and ill employees, you may not record the employee's name on the Cal/OSHA Form 300 for certain “privacy concern cases,” as specified in Sections 14300.29(b)(6) through 14300.29(b)(9).

(E) If an employee or representative asks for access to the Cal/OSHA 301 Incident Report, when do I have to provide it?

1. When an employee, former employee, or personal representative asks for a copy of the Cal/OSHA Form 301 Incident Report describing an injury or illness to that employee or former employee, you must give the requester a copy of the Cal/OSHA 301 Incident Report containing that information by the end of the next business day.

Exception: If your establishment is in SIC Code 781, you must give the requester the information within 7 calendar days.

2. When an authorized employee representative asks for copies of the Cal/OSHA 301 Incident Reports or equivalent forms for an establishment where the agent represents employees under a collective bargaining agreement, you must give copies of those forms to the authorized employee representative within seven (7) calendar days but with the following personally identifying information deleted:

1. Name;

2. Address;

3. Date of birth;

4. Date of hire;

5. Gender;

6. Name of physician;

7. Location where treatment was provided;

8. Whether the employee was treated in an emergency room; and

9. Whether the employee was hospitalized overnight as an in-patient.

(F) May I charge for the copies?

No. You may not charge for these copies the first time they are provided. However, if one of the designated persons asks for additional copies, you may assess a reasonable charge for retrieving and copying the records.

(c) With the exception of provisions to protect the privacy of employees in subsections (b)(2)(D) and (b)(2)(E) of this section and in subsections (b)(6) through (b)(10) in Section 14300.29, nothing in this section shall be deemed to preclude employees and employee representatives from collectively bargaining to obtain access to information relating to occupational injuries and illnesses in addition to the information made available under this section.

HISTORY

1. New section filed 1-15-2002; operative 1-15-2002 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4 (Register 2002, No. 3).

Note

Note: Authority cited: Section 6410, Labor Code. Reference: Section 6410, Labor Code.