OSHA takes muscle out of proposal ... for now

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has postponed for one year three record keeping provisions related to musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). For the time being, employers are not required to offer specifics on MSD cases when they complete their health and safety logs. Instead, MSDs can be handled as "privacy concern cases," and reporting rules can be satisfied by simply checking an MSD column in the OSHA Record keeping Log. That means that during the 2003 calendar year, employers will still have to record injuries, but they will not be required to use an MSD definition to categorize cases on the OSHA Log. Instead, they must check the column for "injury" or "all other illnesses," depending on the circumstances of the case.