OSHA rolls back regulations, reporting

OSHA has rolled back some of its detailed reporting on workplace fatalities, a move that has been backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce which thought the information was unnecessarily and unfairly punitive to companies.

Under the Obama Administration, extensive details about fatalities were  posted on the OSHA website, including the names of the workers who died, the companies, and the apparent circumstances. But critics said the practice did not protect the privacy of families and unfairly put black marks on companies even before the accidents were investigated.

The practice was an attempt to make companies work harder on compliance and humanize safety statistics, OSHA officials said. The agency posted weekly reports of accidents and put a scrolling box on its home page reporting the names of workers who died in accidents.

The new OSHA website posts a more limited set of information on citations for companies dating back to the beginning of the year. Previously, fatality information was available through 2009.

OSHA has also rolled back a regulation that required companies to electronically file injury logs they keep at the work site, according to the Wall Street Journal.