CONN-OSHA Answers Your Safety Questions: September 2023

Welcome to our monthly column featuring CONN-OSHA experts answering some of the most commonly asked safety questions from CBIA member companies.

Most of the responses from Catherine Zinsser, a CONN-OSHA occupational safety training specialist, will be on recordkeeping since that is the focus of most questions she fields.

But if you’d like to ask her a question on another topic, please contact CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery.

He will treat all questions confidentially and never share any identifying company information with CONN-OSHA or anyone else.

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Q: An employee finishes his scheduled work day at 5 pm and clocks out. The employee leaves the employer’s building and walks on a publicly owned sidewalk towards his car. The car is parked in a church parking lot, where the church has agreed to allow the employees to park. While approaching his car, the employee trips and fractures his ankle, requiring medical treatment beyond first aid. Would this be considered an OSHA recordable injury?

A: No, this injury is not work-related. A parking area where the employer does not have control, such as the church parking lot described in your question, would not be considered part of the employer’s establishment, and therefore not part of the work environment.

Q: OSHA gives examples in defining first aid such as drinking fluids for relief of heat and stress. Does this include administering medical IV liquids?

A: No. Intravenous administration of fluids to treat work-related heat stress is medical treatment.

Q: An employee parked his vehicle in a shared parking lot prior to coming to work (not a “company parking lot”). As he exited his vehicle, he tripped and was injured. Is this injury work related?

A: No, this injury is not work-related. A parking area where the employer does not have control (such as a parking lot outside of a building shared by different employers, or a public parking area like those found at a mall or beneath a multi-employer office building) would not be considered part of the employer’s establishment, and therefore not part of the work environment.

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For more information, contact CBIA’s Phillip Montgomery (860.244.1982).