OSHA Record Requests During an Inspection: What to Provide and When

When an OSHA inspector or other authorized government representative asks for your Part 1904 records, provide copies within four business hours. That includes current and stored logs, the privacy case list, the 300As, and the 301s.

Inspection requests are easier when records are already audit-ready.

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).

Provide required OSHA records to government representatives under the applicable rule. 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.

Compliance managers are judged on whether the records hold up later, so focus on the basis for each decision and a clean history of changes.

Teams lose time searching for privacy lists and supporting forms.

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

• The request scope can include current and stored records.
• Additional copies beyond the first can carry a reasonable charge for retrieving and copying the records.

An inspector arrives at 10 a.m. and asks for five years of logs and 301s. The records are kept at headquarters in another time zone, so the four business hours are measured by headquarters' business hours. The central team sends everything by 1 p.m. local time.

1. Identify the request's authority.
2. Gather the forms.
3. Protect privacy details.
4. Document what was produced and when.

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.

• Post-Accident Drug Testing and OSHA Recordkeeping: Avoiding Retaliation Traps
• Employee Access to OSHA 300 Logs: What Employers Should Be Ready to Provide
• Employee Access to the OSHA 300 Log: The Next Business Day Rule
• Correcting the OSHA 300A After Posting: When to Update the Annual Summary