CONN-OSHA Answers Yours Safety Questions: March 2023

03.08.2023
FAQ HR & Safety
HR & Safety

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.


Q: A part-time employee who works an average of 18 hours per week is injured. They are put on restrictions.

Would I count each day that they were on restrictions or just count two to three days per week because that’s how many days they normally work?

A: You must count the number of calendar days the employee was restricted as a result of the injury, regardless of whether or not the employee was scheduled to work on those day(s).

Q: An employee finishes their scheduled work day at 5 pm and clocks out. The employee leaves the employer’s building and walks on a publicly owned sidewalk toward their car.

The car is parked in a church parking lot, where the church has agreed to allow the employees to park.

While approaching the car, the employee trips and fractures their 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: An employee is going to their car parked in the employee lot to obtain personal paperwork during normal working hours.

While walking to their car, they trip and breaks\ their foot. Does this constitute a work related injury since they were conducting non-work related business at the time of the injury occurring?

A: The case is work-related and recordable. An injury or illness is work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulting condition or significantly aggravated a pre-existing injury or illness. 

The company parking lot is part of the work environment. Retrieving personal property during work hours does not meet any of the exceptions to work-relatedness.


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

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