Public Citizen v. Department of Labor (OSHA form 300A data, 2019)

We brought this action under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to compel OSHA to release summary work-related injury and illness data (OSHA Form 300A data) it collected for Calendar Year 2019.

In 2016, OSHA issued a rule requiring certain categories of employers to electronically submit to OSHA, on an annual basis, the summary workplace injury and illness data that employers are required to record on OSHA Form 300A.

OSHA has collected the Form 300A data for Calendar Years (CY) 2016-2019. After Public Citizen prevailed in a lawsuit seeking release of the Form 300A data submitted in in late 2017 and early 2018, see Public Citizen Foundation v. DOL, No. 1:18-cv-00117 (D.D.C. June 23, 2020), OSHA posted on its website the Form 300A data for CY 2016, 2017, and 2018. See Press Release, DOL, U.S. Department of Labor Releases Work-Related Injury and Illness Data (Sept. 4, 2020), https://www.osha.gov/news/newsreleases/national/09042020.

On September 1, 2020, Public Citizen submitted a FOIA request seeking the CY 2019 Form 300A data. After more than two months passed without a substantive response to our request, we filed suit to compel OSHA to release the requested records. After Public Citizen sued, OSHA gave up and agreed to release the requested records, and we agreed to join OSHA in seeking an extension of its deadline to answer the complaint. In the joint motion, OSHA states that “on or around January 15, 2021,” OSHA “will post on its website the Calendar Year 2019 Form 300A data submitted through OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application that is the subject of Plaintiff’s FOIA request.” On January 13, 2021, OSHA posted the requested records. See https://www.osha.gov/Establishment-Specific-Injury-and-Illness-Data .