CONN-OSHA Answers Your Safety Questions: April 2024

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 email 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 sustained a work-related injury and was placed on restriction. She worked for a few days with the restriction and then went on a pre-planned vacation. During her vacation, she followed up with the physician who maintained her restriction.

She plans on using her vacation time and then retire for reasons not related to the injury. She may not return to work between the time her vacation ends and her retirement begins. At what point can I stop counting restricted days on this employee?

A: You can stop the day count on the day she retires since the retirement is unrelated to the injury.

Q: Does “total hours worked by all employees last year” include holiday, sick, and bereavement leave?

A: No, you do not include vacation, sick leave, holidays, or any other non-work time, even if the employees were paid for it. 

You should include hours worked by salaried, hourly, part-time, and seasonal workers, as well as hours worked by other workers subject to day to day supervision by your establishment (e.g., temporary help services workers).

Q: How do I record a case if a worker is injured or becomes ill on the day before scheduled time off?

A: You need to record a case of this type only if you receive information from a physician or other health care professional indicating that the employee should not have worked, or should have performed only restricted work, during the scheduled time off. 

If so, you must record the injury or illness as a case with days away from work or restricted work, and enter the day counts, as appropriate.

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