How to file a report with OSHA: the complete guide

Last updated 2026-07-09

What kinds of reports can you file with OSHA?

There are several distinct reports you might file with OSHA, and mixing them up is the most common mistake people make before they even start. Each one has its own form, its own deadline, and its own outcome.

A safety complaint is what most workers picture. You're telling OSHA that your employer has a hazard or is breaking a standard, and you want the agency to investigate.

A severe injury report is something employers are legally required to file. Under 29 CFR 1904.39, employers must report any work-related fatality within 8 hours, and any in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. This is not optional, and it's not the same as the worker-initiated complaint process.^[1]

A retaliation complaint runs on a separate track. If your employer fired you, demoted you, or harassed you because you raised a safety concern, that's a Section 11(c) violation under the OSH Act, and OSHA runs a dedicated whistleblower program for it. You have 30 days from the retaliatory act to file.^[2]

Then there's the OSHA 300 log. That's an internal employer recordkeeping requirement, not a filing you submit to OSHA (unless OSHA asks for it during an inspection). Which category fits your situation shapes everything about how you file and what happens next.

For background on what OSHA is and how the agency works, that context helps before you file anything.

How do you file a safety complaint with OSHA online?

The fastest and most common path is the online complaint form at osha.gov/workers/file-complaint. It asks for your employer's name and address, the type of work performed, and a description of the hazard. You can attach photos or documents. The whole thing takes about 10 to 15 minutes if you have the details in front of you.

One decision to make first: formal or informal complaint? A formal complaint carries your signature (electronic is fine) and directs OSHA to conduct an inspection. An informal complaint gets forwarded to the employer for a written response. Formal complaints carry more weight. If you're describing an imminent danger situation, go formal every time.

Confidentiality is built in. OSHA will not tell your employer who filed if you check the confidentiality box. Your name won't appear in any documents handed to the employer.^[3]

After you submit, OSHA assigns a tracking number. Use it to follow up with your local area office. Response time swings widely by office workload and hazard severity, which the timeline section below covers in detail.

What are the other ways to report to OSHA if you don't want to go online?

Phone is often the best option when the hazard is urgent. Call 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742), available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern.^[4] For imminent danger, the person answering can connect you with a local area director. Calls are free, and you can ask to stay anonymous.

Fax and mail still work. Download the OSHA complaint form (OSHA-7) from osha.gov, fill it out, and send it to the OSHA area office that covers your employer's location. A directory of area offices sits at osha.gov/contactus. Mail adds several days to response time, so skip it for urgent hazards.

In person is the most direct route. Walk into your local OSHA area office, ask to speak with a compliance officer, and describe the hazard. Bring photos, dates, and any written documentation. Area offices can start a priority inspection on the spot for credible imminent danger reports.

If your state runs its own OSHA-approved plan, you file with the state agency, not federal OSHA. Twenty-two states and two territories run their own plans covering private employers.^[5] California (Cal/OSHA), Michigan (MIOSHA), and Washington (WISHA) each have their own portals and phone lines. Filing with federal OSHA in a state-plan state just gets your complaint forwarded, so go direct and save the wait.

What information do you need to file an OSHA complaint?

You don't need a lawyer, a CFR citation, or even a specific standard to file. OSHA compliance officers are trained to translate plain-language descriptions into the relevant standards. More detail still helps. A specific complaint gets a faster, more targeted response.

Minimum information OSHA needs:

• Your employer's full legal name and the physical address of the worksite (not corporate HQ if they differ)
• The type of work your employer does
• A plain-English description of the hazard: what it is, where it is, how long it's been there
• Whether the hazard has already caused an injury or illness

Helpful to add:

• The approximate number of workers exposed
• Whether you told management and what they said
• Any photos, videos, or internal documents (attachments accepted online)
• The names of witnesses (optional; OSHA will protect their identities too)

For the employer's mandatory severe injury reports under 29 CFR 1904.39, the required information includes the establishment name, the location of the incident, the time of the incident, the type of reportable event, the number of employees affected, their names, the employer's contact person and phone number, and a brief description of the incident.^[1] OSHA runs a dedicated severe injury reporting line at 1-800-321-6742 for exactly this.

How long does OSHA take to respond after you file a complaint?

Response time depends on how OSHA classifies your complaint. The agency uses a priority system, and imminent danger reports go to the front of the line.

Complaint Priority	Typical OSHA Response Target
Imminent danger	Inspect as soon as possible, typically within 24 hours
Fatality / catastrophe	Inspect within 24 hours
Formal complaint, serious hazard	Inspect within 3 to 5 business days
Non-formal (informal) complaint	Contact employer within 5 to 10 business days, request written response
Lower-priority formal complaint	Weeks to several months depending on area office workload

These are OSHA's stated targets, not guarantees. Area offices are chronically understaffed relative to the number of workplaces they cover. In fiscal year 2023, federal OSHA had roughly 1,850 inspectors covering more than 11 million workplaces.^[6] If you filed a formal complaint and heard nothing in three weeks, call the area office with your tracking number.

For imminent danger, don't wait for OSHA. Call 1-800-321-6742 and say the words "imminent danger" out loud. That phrase triggers a different internal protocol than a general complaint.

Can your employer retaliate against you for filing an OSHA complaint?

No. Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for exercising their rights under the Act, including filing complaints, joining inspections, or reporting injuries.^[7] The protection covers firing, demotion, pay cuts, shift reassignment, and harassment.

The catch is the deadline. You must file a retaliation complaint within 30 days of the adverse action. That's a short window. If you were fired on a Thursday for reporting a safety hazard, your 30-day clock started Thursday.

To file, go to osha.gov/whistleblower or call the same 1-800-321-6742 number. You can also walk into a local area office. OSHA investigates, and if it finds merit, it can seek reinstatement, back pay, and compensatory damages on your behalf. The investigation costs the worker nothing.

Beyond the OSH Act, OSHA administers whistleblower protections under more than 20 other federal statutes covering industries from trucking to nuclear power to financial services.^[8] If you work in a regulated industry and faced retaliation for raising a safety or compliance concern, check whether a more specific statute applies. Several allow 180 days instead of 30.

What happens after OSHA receives your complaint?

First, OSHA decides whether to inspect or to handle it by phone or fax. Formal complaints from workers who include their names draw on-site inspections more reliably than anonymous informal ones.

If OSHA schedules an on-site inspection, a compliance officer visits the workplace, usually unannounced. The officer holds an opening conference, walks the worksite, interviews employees (possibly including the person who filed, if they consented), and reviews records. Workers have the right to accompany the OSHA inspector during the walkaround.^[9]

After the inspection, OSHA issues citations and proposed penalties for any violations found. Serious violations run up to $16,550 per violation as of 2024 (adjusted annually for inflation); willful or repeated violations go up to $165,514 per violation.^[10] The employer has 15 working days to contest citations.

If OSHA decides not to inspect, which is common for informal complaints, it contacts the employer, explains the alleged hazard, and asks for a written corrective action plan. You'll get a copy of the employer's response if you provided your contact information.

Either way, OSHA is supposed to notify you of the outcome. File formally with your name attached and you become a party to the proceeding, with rights to object if you think OSHA's response fell short.

Do small business employers need to report injuries and illnesses differently?

Partly. The recordkeeping rules in 29 CFR Part 1904 carry a partial exemption for smaller employers, but the severe injury reporting rule has no small-business exemption at all.

Here's how it works. Employers with 10 or fewer employees at all times during the previous calendar year are generally exempt from keeping OSHA 300 logs, OSHA 300-A annual summaries, and OSHA 301 incident reports.^[11] There's also an industry-based exemption for low-hazard industries listed in Appendix A to Subpart B of 29 CFR 1904, which covers things like bookstores, insurance agencies, and certain retail.

Now the part the exemption never touches: the 29 CFR 1904.39 severe injury reporting rule. Every employer, regardless of size or industry, must report work-related fatalities within 8 hours and work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, and eye losses within 24 hours. A five-employee bakery and a 5,000-employee factory carry the identical obligation there.^[1]

Small business owners building out their safety documentation can save real time with a generator like SafetyFolio's safety program tool, which produces OSHA-compliant written programs in about 15 minutes instead of forcing you to read every applicable CFR section by hand.

Electronic submission rules apply to some employers too. Under 29 CFR 1904.41, establishments with 250 or more employees (or 20 to 249 employees in high-hazard industries) must submit their 300A data electronically each year to OSHA's Injury Tracking Application at osha.gov/injuryreporting.^[12]

What if your workplace is covered by a state OSHA plan, not federal OSHA?

Twenty-two states and two U.S. territories (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) run OSHA-approved state plans that cover private-sector employers.^[5] Six more jurisdictions have state plans covering only state and local government workers.

In a state-plan state, you file complaints with the state agency. The plan must have standards and enforcement at least as effective as federal OSHA, so your rights hold up the same. Penalties, response timelines, and complaint procedures are similar but not identical.

State	Agency Name	Complaint Line
California	Cal/OSHA	1-844-522-6734
Washington	L&I / WISHA	1-800-423-7233
Michigan	MIOSHA	1-800-866-4674
Oregon	Oregon OSHA	1-800-922-2689
Arizona	Arizona Division of Occupational Safety	602-542-5795

A full list of state plan contacts sits at osha.gov/stateplans. Not sure whether your state has a plan? That page settles it in 30 seconds.

Federal OSHA still covers federal government workers in every state, and it covers private-sector workers in the 28 states without their own plans.

What do the OSHA complaint statistics actually tell us about who files and why?

The data here is incomplete, but what exists is useful. OSHA logged roughly 32,000 complaints in fiscal year 2023 that led to enforcement activity, per federal enforcement data.^[6] That number almost certainly undercounts actual hazard reports, because a large share of informal complaints and referrals never become inspection records.

Construction, manufacturing, and healthcare drive the highest complaint volumes in raw numbers, which tracks with where workers face the most serious hazards. Construction is telling: the fatality rate hit 9.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2022, against an all-industry average of 3.7.^[13]

Retaliation complaints are a smaller but real slice. OSHA's whistleblower program received 3,083 complaints in fiscal year 2023, with merit findings in a minority of cases (historically around 20 to 25 percent reach formal settlement or a merit determination).^[8]

Here's the practical read. A complaint gets OSHA's attention more reliably in high-hazard industries and imminent danger situations. In lower-hazard settings, informal complaints often close out with an employer letter rather than an inspection. Want an inspection? File formally, put your name on it, and describe the hazard with specifics.

What should employers do when they get notice of an OSHA complaint?

First, don't panic. Most complaints, especially informal ones, close without an on-site inspection if the employer responds promptly and credibly.

When an OSHA informal complaint letter lands, you typically have 5 to 10 business days to respond in writing. Your response should do three things: describe the hazard as you understand it, explain what corrective actions you've taken or are taking with specific dates, and attach documentation (training records, inspection checklists, equipment purchase orders) that proves action.

Don't retaliate against the employee you suspect filed. This is where small employers create their biggest legal exposure. Even if you're 100 percent sure who filed, any adverse action inside a window that looks retaliatory is a Section 11(c) problem. Document performance issues through normal HR processes and keep safety concerns completely separate.

For a formal complaint that triggers an inspection, call an attorney with OSHA experience before the compliance officer arrives if you get even a day's notice. If the inspection is unannounced, which is the norm, cooperate professionally. You have the right to accompany the compliance officer on the walkaround and to have an attorney present.^[9]

A current written safety program cuts your exposure in any inspection. If your program documents hazard assessments, training records, and corrective action logs, you have evidence of good faith. No written program yet? SafetyFolio's safety program generator gets you to a compliant baseline fast.

How is filing an OSHA report different from filing a workers' compensation claim?

These are two separate systems that get confused because both involve workplace injuries.

A workers' compensation claim is about medical care and wage replacement for an injury you already suffered. You file it with your employer, who reports it to their workers' comp insurance carrier, not with OSHA. It's a state-administered insurance system, not a federal safety enforcement system.

An OSHA complaint is about a hazard that could injure workers, or a violation of an OSHA standard, whether or not anyone has been hurt yet. You file it with OSHA. The goal is a fixed hazard and an accountable employer, not a check for yourself.

You can file both at once. If you were injured because of a hazard you believe violated an OSHA standard, doing both makes sense. Workers' comp gets you care and income. The OSHA complaint gets the hazard corrected so the next worker doesn't get hurt.

One more line to draw: OSHA does not compensate injured workers. The agency can fine employers and order hazard abatement, but it has no way to pay medical bills or lost wages. That job belongs to the workers' comp system.

Frequently asked questions

Can you file an OSHA report anonymously?

Yes. When you file online or by phone, you can request confidentiality and OSHA will not reveal your name to your employer. You can also file without giving your name at all, though anonymous complaints are more likely to be handled as informal complaints rather than triggering a formal inspection. Providing your name confidentially generally leads to faster and more thorough responses.

How long do you have to file an OSHA retaliation complaint?

Under Section 11(c) of the OSH Act, you have 30 days from the date of the retaliatory action to file. This is a hard deadline. Some other statutes administered by OSHA's whistleblower program allow 90 or 180 days, depending on the industry and law involved. If you missed the 30-day window, check whether another statute with a longer window applies to your situation.

Does OSHA investigate every complaint it receives?

No. OSHA classifies complaints by severity and decides whether to inspect on-site or handle them by contacting the employer. Imminent danger complaints get on-site inspections as a priority. Lower-severity informal complaints often result in OSHA sending a letter to the employer requesting a written response. In fiscal year 2023, federal OSHA had about 1,850 inspectors covering more than 11 million workplaces, so not every complaint becomes a site visit.

What is the phone number to report to OSHA?

Call 1-800-321-OSHA, which is 1-800-321-6742. It's available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time. This number handles both worker safety complaints and the employer-required severe injury reports (fatalities within 8 hours, hospitalizations and amputations within 24 hours). For imminent danger situations, say the words 'imminent danger' when the call is answered.

What happens to an employer after OSHA receives a complaint?

For informal complaints, OSHA typically contacts the employer by phone or letter and requests a written response describing corrective actions. For formal complaints, OSHA schedules an inspection, usually unannounced. After an inspection, OSHA issues citations and proposed penalties for any violations found. The employer has 15 working days to contest. Serious violation penalties run up to $16,550 per violation as of 2024.

Can an employer find out who filed an OSHA complaint?

Not if you request confidentiality. OSHA keeps your identity protected when you ask and will not include your name in any documents given to the employer. If you file formally with your name attached without requesting confidentiality, the employer may learn your identity through the inspection process. Most workers file confidentially, and OSHA's practice is to respect that request consistently.

Are small businesses exempt from OSHA reporting requirements?

Partially. Employers with 10 or fewer employees are generally exempt from maintaining OSHA 300 log recordkeeping. Low-hazard industries listed in 29 CFR 1904 Appendix A also qualify for exemptions. But no size or industry exemption applies to the 29 CFR 1904.39 severe injury reporting rule. Every employer must report work-related fatalities within 8 hours and in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or eye losses within 24 hours.

How do you report to OSHA in a state that has its own OSHA plan?

File directly with the state agency, not federal OSHA. Twenty-two states and two territories have approved state plans covering private employers. Examples include Cal/OSHA in California, MIOSHA in Michigan, and Oregon OSHA. A full directory is at osha.gov/stateplans. If you mistakenly file with federal OSHA in a state-plan state, your complaint gets forwarded to the state, but filing direct saves time.

How do you report a workplace death to OSHA?

Employers must report any work-related fatality to OSHA within 8 hours under 29 CFR 1904.39. Call 1-800-321-6742, report online at osha.gov/report, or go in person to the nearest area office. OSHA will open a fatality investigation. Workers or family members who want to report a workplace death for investigation purposes can call the same number or file an online complaint at osha.gov.

What is the difference between an OSHA complaint and an OSHA recordable?

An OSHA complaint is a report filed by a worker (or anyone) asking OSHA to investigate a hazard or violation at a workplace. An OSHA recordable is an injury or illness that meets criteria in 29 CFR 1904 requiring it to be logged on an employer's OSHA 300 log. Recordables are employer obligations; complaints are worker rights. A single incident can trigger both, but they are separate obligations with separate forms and processes.

Can you file an OSHA complaint on behalf of someone else?

Yes. OSHA accepts complaints from workers, union representatives, attorneys, family members, and third parties. The online form asks for your relationship to the worksite. If you're filing on behalf of a worker who fears retaliation, you can file confidentially and describe the hazard as you understand it. The complaint doesn't require you to be an employee of the company being reported.

How do you report a hazard to OSHA without triggering an inspection?

File an informal complaint rather than a formal signed complaint. Informal complaints (sometimes called non-formal referrals) typically result in OSHA contacting the employer by letter or phone rather than scheduling an on-site visit. The employer must respond in writing about corrective actions. This path is less confrontational but also provides less enforcement pressure. OSHA can still upgrade to a formal inspection if the employer's response is inadequate.

What records should you gather before filing an OSHA complaint?

Gather dates and times the hazard was observed, photos or video if you have them, the specific location within the worksite, any prior reports to management and their responses, names of coworkers who witnessed the hazard (they can remain confidential), and any incident or near-miss records. You don't need all of this to file, but the more concrete detail you provide, the more targeted OSHA's response tends to be.

How do you report to OSHA for a construction site hazard?

Use the same channels: online at osha.gov/workers/file-complaint, by phone at 1-800-321-6742, or at the local area office. Construction falls under 29 CFR Part 1926. Mention specific hazards like fall protection, scaffold integrity, or trenching if you know them. Construction complaints tend to be prioritized because the industry has one of the highest fatality rates, at 9.6 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2022 per BLS data.

Sources

1. OSHA, 29 CFR 1904.39 Reporting fatalities, hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye as a result of work-related incidents: Employers must report work-related fatalities within 8 hours and in-patient hospitalizations, amputations, or eye losses within 24 hours
2. OSHA, File a Complaint: Workers can request confidentiality when filing an OSHA complaint and OSHA will not reveal their identity to the employer
3. OSHA, Contact Us: OSHA complaint hotline is 1-800-321-OSHA (1-800-321-6742), available Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern
4. OSHA, State Plans: Twenty-two states and two territories have OSHA-approved state plans covering private-sector employers
5. OSHA, Enforcement: Federal OSHA had roughly 1,850 inspectors covering more than 11 million workplaces in fiscal year 2023
6. OSHA, Workers' Rights: Section 11(c) of the OSH Act prohibits employers from retaliating against workers for exercising their rights under the Act
7. OSHA, Workers' Rights: Workers have the right to accompany the OSHA compliance officer during the inspection walkaround
8. OSHA, Penalties: Serious violations carry penalties up to $16,550 per violation; willful or repeated violations up to $165,514 per violation as of 2024
9. OSHA, 29 CFR 1904 Subpart B, Exemptions from Requirements for Keeping OSHA Injury and Illness Records: Employers with 10 or fewer employees are generally exempt from OSHA 300 log recordkeeping requirements
10. OSHA, Injury Tracking Application, 29 CFR 1904.41 Electronic Submission of Injury and Illness Records: Establishments with 250 or more employees, or 20 to 249 employees in high-hazard industries, must submit 300A data electronically each year
11. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary 2022: The construction industry fatality rate was 9.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2022, compared to an all-industry average of 3.7