OSHA Recordkeeping for Nonprofits: Volunteers, Employees, and BLS Requests

Nonprofit status does not exempt an employer from OSHA recordkeeping; the same size and industry tests apply, and paid staff are covered employees. True volunteers generally are not, and a BLS survey request must be answered either way.

Nonprofits can have true volunteers, employees, stipends, grants, and unexpected survey requests.

You record the injuries and illnesses of everyone on your payroll: labor, executive, hourly, salaried, part-time, seasonal, and migrant workers (29 CFR 1904.31). You also record cases for workers who are not on your payroll if you supervise them day to day, such as temporary or leased workers; if a contractor supervises its own people day to day, the contractor records. Each case is recorded once, by the employer that provides day-to-day supervision. Self-employed people are not covered, and owners or partners of a sole proprietorship or partnership are not employees for recordkeeping purposes.

Start with covered employee status and respond to OSHA or BLS notices when they apply. Cases slip through when the host site and the staffing agency each assume the other will log them, and get counted twice when both do. The fix is to decide supervision at the start of each engagement, put it in writing, and agree how incident details reach the employer that records.

Nonprofit operations teams often manage both staff and volunteers, so write down who is which before an incident forces the question.

Teams assume nonprofit status removes recordkeeping obligations.

Whoever records the case also counts it in their 300A totals and rates, and supervised workers' hours belong in that employer's hours worked.

• Stipends, supervision, or employee-like arrangements can complicate volunteer assumptions.
• Corporate officers who are employees are covered, even though owners of sole proprietorships and partnerships are not.

A nonprofit thrift store chain has 45 paid employees across four stores. Used merchandise stores (4533) are on Appendix A to Subpart E, not on the partially exempt list, so each store keeps a log, and the stores with 20 or more employees submit 300A data. Injuries to unpaid volunteers sorting donations are not recorded.

1. Document who is staff and who is a volunteer.
2. Apply the size and industry tests.
3. Answer any OSHA or BLS notices.
4. Decide who owns incident intake.

What to keep in the case file:

• Who directs the worker's tasks, schedule, and methods each day
• The staffing or contractor agreement and what it says about recordkeeping
• Notes from coordination with the other employer about who records the case
• Whether the worker's hours are included in your hours-worked total

300log records each case against an establishment, so once you have decided that a supervised temp or leased worker's case belongs on your log, it lands on the right establishment's log and in its 300A totals.

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

• Temporary Workers and OSHA 300 Logs: Who Records the Case?
• Contractor Injuries and the OSHA 300 Log: Avoiding Duplicate or Missing Cases
• Volunteers and OSHA Recordkeeping: Are They Covered Employees?
• OSHA Recordkeeping for Restaurants: Small Business Exemptions and Injury Logs