Employee Access to OSHA 300 Logs: What Employers Should Be Ready to Provide

Employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives can get a copy of the 300 Log by the end of the next business day. Names stay on the copy, except for privacy concern cases, and the first copy is free.

Access requests are easier when logs are clean before anyone asks.

Employees, former employees, their personal representatives, and authorized employee representatives can ask for your injury records (29 CFR 1904.35(b)(2)). A copy of the relevant 300 Log is due by the end of the next business day, with names left on except for privacy cases. An employee or former employee gets their own 301 by the end of the next business day. An authorized collective bargaining representative gets the “Tell us about the case” section of the establishment's 301s within 7 calendar days. The first copy is free. Government representatives get records within 4 business hours (29 CFR 1904.40). You must also have a reasonable procedure for reporting injuries and must not retaliate against anyone for reporting (29 CFR 1904.36).

Keep OSHA forms ready and protect privacy concern case names when sharing logs. Access requests arrive without warning. If privacy fields and descriptions were not reviewed in advance, a next-business-day deadline becomes a rushed redaction exercise. The fix is to keep logs request-ready all year (privacy cases flagged, descriptions reviewed) and to log each request with its time and requester type.

HR safety partners often hear the sensitive details first, so privacy handling and a clear line between HR files and the OSHA log matter most.

Teams often discover privacy descriptions are too specific only after a request arrives.

The same log that employees can request is the one inspectors ask for, so descriptions, privacy handling, and reporting procedures are tested by both.

• Former employees and authorized representatives can create timing and scope questions.
• Additional copies beyond the first can carry a reasonable charge for retrieving and copying the records.

A current employee asks HR for the log for the distribution center where they work. HR sends the 2026 log the next morning, with names intact except for two privacy cases that read “privacy case”. When the same employee asks for a coworker's 301, HR declines: an employee is entitled to their own 301, not someone else's.

1. Maintain logs ready to share.
2. Review privacy fields ahead of time.
3. Provide the copy by the end of the next business day.
4. Document how the request was handled.

What to keep in the case file:

• Date, time, requester, and requester type for each request
• What was provided and when
• The privacy review done before release
• Your written injury reporting procedure and how employees were told about it

300log produces an establishment's OSHA 300 Log, with privacy cases masked, or an individual 301 in a couple of clicks, so access deadlines are measured in minutes rather than days.

For a quick answer without an account, use the free deadline calendar.

• Employee Access to the OSHA 300 Log: The Next Business Day Rule
• Authorized Employee Representative Access to OSHA Injury Records
• OSHA Injury Reporting Procedures: What Counts as Reasonable?
• Correcting the OSHA 300A After Posting: When to Update the Annual Summary