Since 1971, the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has required many employers to document work-related injuries and illnesses. Specifically, companies employing more than 10 people or responsible for more than 10 employees—in other words, most printing businesses—must keep a yearly log of these incidents and post a summary in the workplace. OSHA inspections can include checks for compliance with the requirements.

To help keep it all from turning into a bureaucratic nightmare, the Printing Industries Alliance (PIA) offers a free video webinar on maintaining the log and posting the summary information. The program is presented by Jerry Banks, PIA’s manager of membership services, who cheerfully describes it as “pure torture, but it’s only about 30 minutes long.”

The webinar, available to members and non-members of PIA alike, reviews the various aspects of the OSHA standard and guides printers through the proper preparation of the log forms. It addresses recording criteria and offers insight into what OSHA inspectors will look for when examining injury and illness records for compliance. The official paperwork—the Form 300 log, the Form 300A summary, and the Form 301 incident report—can be downloaded along with instructions from the OSHA web site.

Help with OSHA compliance is one of a number of environmental, health, and safety services provided by PIA, a trade association representing printers in New York State, northern New Jersey and northwestern Pennsylvania. For example, members can take advantage of a comprehensive, no-cost safety training program that’s designed, says the association, to “help keep you out of trouble with OSHA, NYS DEC and other regulatory agencies.”

Banks conducts this training, and those wishing to know more about it can call him at 800-777-4742.