Congress has rejected the so-called Volks Rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) that mandated businesses retain records of injuries and illnesses for five years instead of the six-month period of the statute of limitations in the OSH Act. Using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), the Senate completed the legislative process with a 50-48 vote yesterday. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal.
The Volks Rule came about after a federal court ruled that OSHA could not issue citations for a company’s not retaining injury and illness records after the six-month statute of limitations had expired.
According to OSHA, the rule that took effect in January was meant to “clarify that the duty to make and maintain an accurate record of an injury or illness continues for as long as the employer must keep and make available records for the year in which the injury or illness occurred. The duty does not expire if the employer fails to create the necessary records when first required to do so.”
The rule took its name from the case that OSHA lost, Volks Construction v. Secretary of Labor.