Rhode Island § 28-20-11 - Division of Occupational Safety

§ 28-20-11. Recordkeeping requirements.

(a) Each employer shall make, keep, preserve, and furnish to the director any records regarding his or her activities relating to this chapter that the director, in cooperation with the United States Secretary of Labor and the United States Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, or their successors, may prescribe by regulation as necessary or appropriate for the enforcement of this chapter or for developing information regarding the causes and prevention of occupational accidents and illnesses. In order to carry out the provisions of this subsection, the regulations may include provisions requiring employers to conduct periodic inspections. The director shall also issue regulations requiring that employers, through posting of notices or other appropriate means, keep their employees informed of their protections and obligations under this chapter, including the provisions of applicable codes.

(b) The director of labor and training, in cooperation with the director of health, shall prescribe regulations requiring employers to maintain accurate records of, and to make periodic reports on, work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses other than minor injuries requiring only first aid treatment and that do not involve medical treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to another job.

(c) The director of labor and training, in cooperation with the director of health, shall issue regulations requiring employers to maintain accurate records of employee exposures to potentially toxic materials or harmful physical agents that are required to be monitored or measured under the provisions of this chapter and of § 23-1.1-7. Those regulations shall provide employees or their representatives with an opportunity to observe the monitoring or measuring, and to have access to the records of the monitoring or measuring. Those regulations shall also make appropriate provision for each employee or former employee to have access to any records that will indicate his or her own exposure to toxic materials or harmful physical agents. Each employer shall promptly notify any employee who has been or is being exposed to toxic materials or harmful physical agents in concentrations or at levels that exceed those prescribed by an applicable safety or health code promulgated under this chapter, and shall inform any employee who is being exposed of the corrective action being taken.

(d) Any information obtained by the director or any other state agency under this chapter shall be obtained with a minimum burden upon employers, especially those operating small businesses. Unnecessary duplication of efforts in obtaining information shall be reduced to the maximum extent feasible.