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Must employers retain workers’ comp records on file for length of employment plus 30 years, just as they must keep certain medical and exposure records under 29 CFR 1910.1020?
According to a December 8, 1980 OSHA interpretation, 1910.1020 (originally numbered as 1910.20) has a limited scope. The regulation applies only to medical or exposure records created as a result of exposure to a toxic agent or harmful physical agent. Workers’ compensation records may or may not be part of those records.
If your workers’ compensation records contain information that makes them a medical record or an exposure record as defined under 29 CFR 1910.1020(b), that is, workplace monitoring results or certain employee medical records made or kept by a physician, nurse, or other health care personnel as the result of an exposure to a toxic or harmful physical agent, then the records must be kept for the employee’s length of employment plus 30 years.
If an injury results from a fall, for example, then workers’ comp records are kept separately from the employer’s medical record program and its records and are not accessible to the employer, then 1910.1020 does not apply.