OSHA Recordkeeping for Construction: Temporary Sites and Severe Reporting

Construction employers keep a log for each establishment, usually the office that runs the work, plus a separate log for any project expected to last a year or more. Construction (NAICS 23) is on ITA Appendix A, and some specialty trades are also on Appendix B.

Construction recordkeeping depends on project duration, employer responsibility, and urgent reporting facts.

Report to OSHA within 8 hours after a work-related fatality, and within 24 hours after a work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye (29 CFR 1904.39). Report by phone or in person to the nearest Area Office, by calling 1-800-321-6742, or online at osha.gov/report; voicemail, fax, and email do not count. A fatality is reportable only if the death occurs within 30 days of the incident, and a hospitalization, amputation, or eye loss only if it occurs within 24 hours. The clock starts when you or your agent learn of the event and that it was work-related. Reporting does not replace recording: the case still goes on the 300 Log.

Separate routine OSHA logs from severe injury reporting and short-term establishment handling. Reporting decisions are made under pressure with partial facts, and a call that waits on an investigation is usually a late call. The fix is a written escalation path: who decides, who calls, which number, and what to have in hand, so the report never waits for the investigation.

Whatever you use should make these easy to keep and retrieve:

• The time of the incident and when the employer first learned of it
• The time and channel of the report, with any reference number
• Admission status from the hospital: in-patient care or observation only
• The OSHA 300 entry created for the same case

1. Map each project's expected duration.
2. Decide employer responsibility.
3. Set severe-reporting clocks and contacts.
4. Assign log ownership.

Construction safety managers juggle short-term sites, multiple employers, and road work, so settle log and reporting ownership per project up front.

Keep these in mind when you compare approaches:

• Teams confuse public street vehicle exceptions with construction work zone reporting duties.
• Multi-employer sites need fast communication but only the responsible employer records the case.
• In-patient hospitalization means formal admission for care or treatment. Admission only for observation or diagnostic testing is not reportable.

Spreadsheets fail quietly: a sort that renumbers rows, a tab copied for the new year, a formula that misses a new column. None of that shows on the printed form, which is why any system, including a spreadsheet, should be tested on real historical cases before it is trusted.

A framing contractor (2381, on Appendix B) with 130 employees runs most jobs from its main office, which keeps the log. A two-year apartment project gets its own log. With 100 or more employees at the office establishment, the company submits 300 and 301 case data as well as the 300A.

300log records on each case's 301 whether the employee was treated in an emergency room or hospitalized overnight as an in-patient, and any date of death, so the log entry sits next to the facts behind a report. The report itself goes to OSHA by phone or at osha.gov/report.

For a quick answer without an account, use the free recordability checker.

• OSHA Severe Injury Reporting: The 8-Hour Fatality Rule
• OSHA 24-Hour Reporting for In-Patient Hospitalizations
• OSHA Amputation Reporting and Recordkeeping: What Safety Teams Should Do First
• OSHA Form Filing FAQs: 300, 300A, 301, and ITA Answers for 2026