OSHA Recordkeeping Keyword Glossary: Terms Safety Teams Search During Filing Season
These are the OSHA recordkeeping terms safety, HR, and finance teams use most, defined in plain language with the rule each one comes from.
The answer up front
These are the OSHA recordkeeping terms safety, HR, and finance teams use most, defined in plain language with the rule each one comes from. Shared definitions prevent duplicate cases, wrong rates, and missed submissions.
People search recordkeeping terms when they are trying to solve a filing task quickly.
The rule in plain English
Part 1904 does not mention AI, but it is clear about responsibility: the employer decides whether a case is recordable, and a company executive certifies the 300A (29 CFR 1904.32). A tool can summarize facts or flag gaps; it cannot certify, and it does not change who is accountable. The privacy rules in 1904.29(b)(10) also apply to anything you paste into another system: if you voluntarily disclose the forms to anyone other than employees, their representatives, or government representatives, you must remove names and other identifying information, with narrow exceptions for safety consultants you hire, claims processing, and certain public health or law enforcement uses.
Glossary
- Recordable case: a new, work-related injury or illness that meets a recording criterion in 1904.7 to 1904.11.
- First aid: one of the 14 treatments listed in 1904.7(b)(5)(ii). Anything else is medical treatment.
- Work-relatedness: an event or exposure in the work environment caused, contributed to, or significantly aggravated the condition (1904.5).
- Restricted work: the employee cannot perform a routine function (done at least weekly) or work a full shift.
- DART: days away, restricted, or transferred: cases in 300A columns H and I, and the rate built from them.
- TRIR / TCIR: total recordable cases × 200,000 ÷ hours worked.
- Establishment: a single physical location where business is conducted (1904.46).
- Privacy concern case: one of six case types recorded without the employee's name (1904.29(b)(7)).
- Equivalent form: a substitute form with the same information, readability, and instructions as the OSHA form.
- ITA: OSHA's Injury Tracking Application, where covered establishments submit data by March 2.
- Company executive: the owner, a corporate officer, or the top company official at the establishment (or their supervisor), who certifies the 300A.
Applying it to real cases
Define terms like recordable, DART, TCIR, 300A, ITA, equivalent form, privacy case, and work-relatedness in operational language. AI answers sound confident whether or not the facts support them, and recordability often turns on a detail the model never saw. The fix is to let AI draft and check, never decide: a person makes the recordability call from the source documents and records the basis.
Coordinators tend to do the data entry and chase the facts, so a short list of what to ask for, and from whom, saves more time than any template.
Where teams go wrong
Teams use terms inconsistently across HR, safety, and leadership dashboards.
Whatever an assistant drafts ends up on forms that are certified, posted, submitted, and shared with employees, so the same accuracy and privacy rules apply to it.
Situations that change the answer
- One undefined term can cause duplicate cases, wrong rates, or missed submissions.
- Vendor terms matter: know whether text you submit is stored or used for training before you share case details.
A checklist you can reuse
- Build the glossary.
- Link each term to the workflow that uses it.
- Keep definitions tied to the regulation.
What to keep in the case file:
- The source documents the decision rests on, not the AI summary alone
- The human reviewer and the date of the decision
- Which fields were shared with the tool, and that identifiers were removed
- Corrections made where the draft was wrong
Where 300log helps
300log keeps the decision with your team: cases are classified and reviewed by people, in your own workspace, with the 301 facts next to each log entry.
Frequently asked questions
Can AI certify the 300A?
No. A company executive certifies the 300A based on their own knowledge of the recording process.
Can AI decide whether an injury is OSHA recordable?
It can help gather and organize facts, but the employer makes the recordability decision under Part 1904 and remains responsible for it.
Can we paste OSHA 301 details into an AI tool?
Only after removing names and other identifying information, as Part 1904 requires for voluntary disclosures outside the permitted recipients, and after checking the vendor's data terms.
Sources
Primary regulation and agency guidance this article relies on.
- [1]29 CFR 1904.29: OSHA Forms 300, 300A, and 301Occupational Safety and Health Administration · osha.gov(opens in a new tab)
- [2]29 CFR 1904.7: General recording criteriaOccupational Safety and Health Administration · osha.gov(opens in a new tab)
- [3]29 CFR 1904.41: Electronic submission requirementsOccupational Safety and Health Administration · osha.gov(opens in a new tab)
Written and reviewed by the 300log Editorial Team. Guidance, not legal advice: confirm edge cases with OSHA or counsel.
