['Injury and Illness Recordkeeping']
['Work-Relatedness Determination']
04/29/2024
...
“Assigned working hours” means those hours the employee is actually expected to work, including overtime.
The exception at 1904.5(b)(2)(v) states that an injury or illness is not “work-related” if it is “solely the result of an employee doing personal tasks (unrelated to their employment) at the establishment outside of the employee’s assigned working hours.”
OSHA has clarified that lunch breaks are considered assigned working hours. For example, if an employee engaged in a personal activity during a lunch break (such as knitting) and sustained an injury that required medical treatment, the case would be work-related and recordable. For the exception to apply, the employee must be engaged in a personal task, and the task must occur outside of assigned working hours. Engaging in personal tasks during breaks and meal periods would not meet the exception.
That provision causes some confusion because another exception at 1904.5(b)(2)(iii) allows for excluding injuries that result “solely from voluntary participation in a wellness program or in a medical, fitness, or recreational activity such as blood donation, physical examination, flu shot, exercise class, racquetball, or baseball.” This exception can apply during assigned working hours, such as employees using an exercise facility during a lunch break. The reference to a recreational activity should not be interpreted to include all personal activities, however, but only those in line with the examples given.
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