[Federal Register: October 30, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 209)]
[Notices]
[Page 61377-61378]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr30oc07-64]
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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
[Docket No. OSHA-2007-0074]
OSHA-7 Form (``Notice of Alleged Safety and Health Hazards'');
Extension of the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Approval of
Information Collection (Paperwork) Requirements
AGENCY: Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Labor.
ACTION: Request for public comment.
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SUMMARY: OSHA solicits public comment concerning its proposal to extend
OMB approval of the information collection requirements specified in
its Standard on the OSHA-7 Form.
DATES: Comments must be submitted (postmarked, sent, or received) by
December 31, 2007.
ADDRESSES:
Electronically: You may submit comments and attachments
electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal. Follow the instructions online for submitting
comments.
Facsimile: If your comments, including attachments, are not longer
than 10 pages, you may fax them to the OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-
1648.
Mail, hand delivery, express mail, messenger, or courier service:
When using this method, you must submit three copies of your comments
and attachments to the OSHA Docket Office, OSHA Docket No. OSHA-2007-
0074, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Heath
Administration, Room N-2625, 200 Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington,
DC 20210. Deliveries (hand, express mail, messenger, and courier
service) are accepted during the Department of Labor's and Docket
Office's normal business hours, 8:15 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., EST.
Instructions: All submissions must include the Agency name and OSHA
docket number for the ICR (OSHA-2007-0074). All comments, including any
personal information you provide, are placed in the public docket
without change, and may be made available online at http://www.regulations.gov.
For further information on submitting comments see
the ``Public Participation'' heading in the section of this notice
titled SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION.
Docket: To read or download comments or other material in the
docket, go to http://www.regulations.gov or the OSHA Docket Office at
the address above. All documents in the docket (including this Federal
Register notice) are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov index;
however, some information (e.g., copyrighted material) is not publicly
available to read or download through the Web site. All submissions,
including copyrighted material, are available for inspection and
copying at the OSHA Docket Office. You may also contact Todd Owen at
the address below to obtain a copy of the ICR.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Todd Owen, Directorate of Standards
and Guidance, OSHA, U.S. Department of Labor, Room N-3609, 200
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20210; telephone (202) 693-
2222.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
The Department of Labor, as part of its continuing effort to reduce
paperwork and respondent (i.e., employer) burden, conducts a
preclearance consultation program to provide the public with an
opportunity to comment on proposed and continuing information
collection requirements in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act
of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)). This program ensures that
information is in the desired format, reporting burden (time and costs)
is minimal, collection instruments are clearly understood, and OSHA's
estimate of the information collection burden is accurate. The
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act) (29 U.S.C. 651
et seq.) authorizes information collection by employers as necessary or
appropriate for enforcement of the OSH Act or for developing
information regarding the causes and prevention of occupational
injuries, illnesses, and accidents (29 U.S.C. 657). The OSH Act also
requires that OSHA obtain such information with minimum burden upon
employers, especially those operating small businesses, and to reduce
to the maximum extent feasible unnecessary duplication of efforts in
obtaining information (29 U.S.C. 657).
Under paragraphs (a) and (c) of 29 CFR 1903.11 (``Complaints by
employees'') employees and their representatives may notify the OSHA
area director or an OSHA compliance officer of safety and health
hazards regulated by the Agency that they believe exist in their
workplaces at any time. These provisions state further that this
notification must be in writing and ``shall set forth with reasonable
particularity the grounds for the notice, and shall be signed by the
employee or representative of the employee.''
In addition to providing specific hazard information to the Agency,
paragraph (a) permits employees/employee representatives to request an
inspection of the workplace. Paragraph (c) also addresses situations in
which employees/employee representatives may provide the information
directly to the OSHA compliance officer during an inspection. An
employer's former employees may also submit complaints to the Agency.
To address the requirements of paragraphs (a) and (c), especially
the requirement that the information be in writing, the Agency
developed the OSHA-7 Form; this form standardized and simplified the
hazard reporting process. For paragraph (a), they may complete an OSHA-
7 Form obtained from the Agency's Web site and then send it to OSHA
online, or deliver a hardcopy of the form to the OSHA area office by
mail or facsimile, or by hand. They may also write a letter containing
the information and hand deliver it to the area office, or send it by
mail or facsimile. In addition, they may provide the information orally
to the OSHA area office or another party (e.g., a Federal safety and
health committee for Federal employees), in which case the area office
or other party completes the hardcopy version of the form. For the
typical situation addressed by paragraph (c), an employee/employee
representative informs an OSHA compliance officer orally of the alleged
hazard during an inspection, and the compliance officer then completes
the hardcopy version of the OSHA-7 Form; occasionally, the employee/
employee representative provides the compliance officer with the
information on the hardcopy version of the OSHA-7 Form.
The information in the hardcopy version of the OSHA-7 Form includes
information about the employer and alleged hazards, including: The
establishment's name, mailing address, and telephone and facsimile
numbers; the site's address and telephone and facsimile numbers; the
name and telephone number of the management official; the type of
business; a description and the specific location of the hazards,
including the approximate
[[Page 61378]]
number of employees exposed or threatened by the hazards; and whether
or not the employee/employee representative informed another government
agency about the hazards (and the name of the agency if so informed).
Additional information on the hardcopy version of the form
addresses the complainant including: Whether or not the complainant
wants OSHA to reveal their name to the employer; whether the
complainant is an employee or an employee representative, or for
information provided orally, a member of a Federal safety and health
committee or another party (with space to specify the party); the
complainant's name, telephone number, and address; and the
complainant's signature attesting that they believe a violation of an
OSHA standard exists at the named establishment; and the date of the
signature. An employee representative must also provide the name of the
organization they represent and their title.
The information contained in the online version of the OSHA-7 Form
is similar to the hard copy version. However, the online version
requests the complainant's e-mail address, and does not ask for the
establishment's and site's telephone and facsimile numbers and the
complainant's signature and signature date.
The Agency uses the information collected on the OSHA-7 Form to
determine whether reasonable grounds exist to conduct an inspection of
the workplace. The description of the hazards, including the number of
exposed employees, allows the Agency to assess the severity of the
hazards and the need to expedite the inspection. The completed form
also provides an employer with notice of the complaint and may serve as
the basis for obtaining a search warrant if an employer denies the
Agency access to the workplace.
II. Special Issues for Comment
OSHA has a particular interest in comments on the following issues:
Whether the proposed information collection requirements
are necessary for the proper performance of the Agency's functions,
including whether the information is useful;
The accuracy of OSHA's estimate of the burden (time and
costs) of the information collection requirements, including the
validity of the methodology and assumptions used;
The quality, utility, and clarity of the information
collected; and
Ways to minimize the burden on employers who must comply;
for example, by using automated or other technological information
collection and transmission techniques.
III. Proposed Actions
Requirements relating to the OSHA-7 Form. The Agency will summarize
the comments submitted in response to this notice and will include this
summary in the request to OMB to extend the approval of the information
collection requirement contained in the Standard.
Type of Review: Extension of a currently approved collection.
Title: OSHA-7 Form (``Notice of Alleged Safety and Health
Hazards'').
OMB Number: 1218-0064.
Affected Public: Individuals or households.
Number of Respondents: 48,298.
Frequency of Recordkeeping: On occasion.
Total Responses: 48,298.
Average Time per Response: Varies from 15 minutes (.25 hour) to
communicate the required information orally to the Agency to 25 minutes
(.42 hour) to provide the information in writing and send it to OSHA.
Total Burden Hours Requested: 12,775.
Estimated Cost (Operation and Maintenance): $990.
IV. Public Participation--Submission of Comments on This Notice and
Internet Access to Comments and Submissions
You may submit comments in response to this document as follows:
(1) Electronically at http://www.regulations.gov, which is the Federal
eRulemaking Portal; (2) by facsimile (FAX); or (3) by hard copy. All
comments, attachments, and other material must identify the Agency name
and the OSHA docket number for the ICR (Docket No. OSHA-2007-0074). You
may supplement electronic submissions by uploading document files
electronically. If you wish to mail additional materials in reference
to an electronic or facsimile submission, you must submit them to the
OSHA Docket Office (see the section of this notice titled ADDRESSES).
The additional materials must clearly identify your electronic comments
by your name, date, and the docket number so the Agency can attach them
to your comments.
Because of security procedures, the use of regular mail may cause a
significant delay in the receipt of comments. For information about
security procedures concerning the delivery of materials by hand,
express delivery, messenger, or courier service, please contact the
OSHA Docket Office at (202) 693-2350 (TTY (877) 889-5627).
Comments and submissions are posted without change at http://www.regulations.gov.
Therefore, OSHA cautions commenters about
submitting personal information such as social security numbers and
date of birth. Although all submissions are listed in the http://www.regulations.gov
index, some information (e.g., copyrighted
material) is not publicly available to read or download through this
Web site. All submissions, including copyrighted material, are
available for inspection and copying at the OSHA Docket Office.
Information on using the http://www.regulations.gov Web site to submit
comments and access the docket is available at the Web site's ``User
Tips'' link. Contact the OSHA Docket Office for information about
materials not available through the Web site, and for assistance in
using the Internet to locate docket submissions.
V. Authority and Signature
Edwin G. Foulke, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational
Safety and Health, directed the preparation of this notice. The
authority for this notice is the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. 3506 et seq.) and Secretary of Labor's Order No. 5-2007 (67 FR
31159).
Signed at Washington, DC, on October 24, 2007.
Edwin G. Foulke, Jr.,
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health.
[FR Doc. E7-21287 Filed 10-29-07; 8:45 am]
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