An OSHA 301 is the individual incident report behind a recordable case. It does not replace the OSHA 300 Log; it gives the facts that make one line on that log defensible. The practical rule is simple: once a case is recordable, prepare a Form 301 or an equivalent form within seven calendar days. That is the bit that catches teams out. The injury may look settled by the end of shift, while the recordkeeping clock has only just started.
The job Form 301 does
Form 301 is formally the Injury and Illness Incident Report. It captures one worker, one event and the treatment or outcome that followed. Under 29 CFR 1904.29, an employer required to keep records enters the case on the 300 Log and prepares a supplementary incident report within seven calendar days of learning that the case is recordable. OSHA’s forms page supplies the standard version, but an equivalent internal report is acceptable when it contains the required information.
Think of the three principal forms as different camera angles. The 300 Log is the year-long ledger; the 300A is the annual total posted publicly; the 301 is the close-up record. It is not an extra form to complete for every near miss, first-aid-only case or property-damage event, unless your own company process calls for it. Its OSHA purpose begins when the Part 1904 recording test is met.
| Record | What it captures | When it is used |
|---|---|---|
| OSHA 300 | One short line per recordable case | As soon as a case is known to be recordable |
| OSHA 301 | Facts of one recordable event | Within seven calendar days |
| OSHA 300A | Establishment-wide totals | At year end and during the posting period |
The 301 provides the detail supporting a 300 Log entry; it is not a substitute for the log.
Complete the event facts before the narrative
Start with the unglamorous fields: establishment name, employee name, job title, date of injury or illness, time the employee began work, and the time of the event. Exact times can become surprisingly useful later. They help separate a work activity from a commute, establish whether a worker was on a personal task, and let a reviewer reconcile the report with a supervisor statement or treatment record.
Then record the event in ordinary language. “Employee suffered hand injury” is too thin. “While replacing a pallet guard on line 4, employee caught the left index finger between the guard and frame” gives a later reader the causal sequence without guessing at fault. Do not turn this field into an accident investigation report. The question is what happened and what part of the body was affected, not why the site’s wider controls may have failed.
The clinical portion needs the same restraint. Record the treatment, whether emergency-room care or overnight admission occurred, and whether the worker missed work, was restricted or transferred. A diagnosis should be recorded as provided by the clinician; a supervisor should not invent one from a symptom. If later information changes the outcome, amend the record. The retention duty is not a one-and-done filing exercise.
A worked Form 301 example
Maya, a shipping clerk, slips on loose stretch wrap while moving cartons. On Tuesday she attends an urgent-care clinic, receives a wrist brace and is told not to lift over 10 pounds for five days. The safety lead should first run the recordability decision: was it work-related, a new case, and did it lead to restricted work, medical treatment beyond first aid or another trigger? A clinician’s instruction that keeps Maya from routine lifting can make this a restricted-work case under 1904.7, even if she never misses a full shift.
Her report should say where the incident occurred, what she was doing, what contacted her body, the clinician’s restrictions and the dates those restrictions applied. “Wrist injury, light duty” leaves too much to reconstruct. “No lifting above 10 pounds from 18–22 September, then released to normal duties” is useable by the person maintaining the 300 Log and by anyone checking day counts later.
The common mistake is completing the report before the classification is settled, then allowing its casual wording to drive the decision. Reverse that order. Keep the evidence neutral, apply the legal test, then complete the entry and supplementary report. Job13’s recordability check is useful for the middle step because it makes the exact missing fact visible instead of pretending every incident has a neat answer.
What can stand in for OSHA Form 301?
Your own workers’ compensation report, first report of injury or incident-management form can stand in if it contains the information OSHA requires: employee identifiers, physician or facility details if treatment occurred, the event date and time, location, description, object or substance involved, body part, nature of injury and outcome. An equivalent form must be as complete, not merely similarly named.
That flexibility helps a multi-site team avoid duplicate entry. It does not permit an incomplete workaround. A short email saying “Sam hurt his shoulder, please log it” can alert a coordinator, but it will not usually provide enough detail for a supplementary record. Keep a map of where each required field lives if your system uses several forms.
Four checks before you file it
- Confirm the establishment. A worker temporarily helping at another site may be recorded there, not at head office.
- Preserve privacy. Certain cases use “privacy case” on the 300 Log, while the separate confidential list carries the name. Read our privacy-case guide before circulating reports.
- Capture restrictions as actual instructions, not vague labels such as “light duty”.
- Set a follow-up date. Days away and restricted-work totals can change after the initial report.
The useful test is whether somebody who was not present could understand the event and rebuild the log entry without ringing the supervisor. If not, the Form 301 is not finished yet.
Keep the report connected to the log
Give the Form 301 report the same case number as the 300 Log entry and keep a simple record of who completed it and when. That small control prevents a detailed report being filed under a worker’s name while the log uses a different shorthand or case number. If the event later becomes a privacy case, retain the confidential link separately and update the public log description with care. The form is supporting evidence, not a second version of the facts.
Frequently asked questions
Is OSHA Form 301 required for every workplace incident?
No. Part 1904 requires a supplementary incident report for each recordable injury or illness. Employers often make internal reports for near misses and first-aid-only events too, but those are company-process records rather than OSHA Form 301 requirements.
How long do you have to complete OSHA Form 301?
Employers required to keep OSHA records have seven calendar days after learning a case is recordable to enter it on the 300 Log and complete an injury and illness incident report or equivalent form.
Can a workers’ compensation report be used instead of Form 301?
Yes, if it contains all the information OSHA requires on the Form 301. Check the fields rather than relying on the form’s title: workers’ compensation and OSHA recordkeeping ask different questions and one report may omit a needed fact.
Does Form 301 get posted with the OSHA 300A?
No. The annual 300A summary is the form posted from 1 February to 30 April. Form 301 is the detailed supplementary incident report retained with the establishment’s recordkeeping records.
