Reporting Work-Related Injuries, Illnesses and Deaths

 An employer may encounter three kinds of work-related physical or mental harm to employees:
(1) A relatively minor injury or illness that does not require medical treatment beyond first aid or cause lost time beyond the date of the injury or illness;
(2) A serious injury or illness requiring medical treatment beyond first aid or causing lost time beyond the date of the injury or illness; or,
(3)  A death.

For (1), no report is required by law.

For (2), an employer must file a report of the injury or illness with either the employer's workers compensation carrier or the Department of Industrial Relations’ Division of Labor Statistics and Research.  This report must be filed within five days after the employer learns of the injury or illness. If the employee later dies due to the reported injury or illness, the employer must file an amended report within five days of learning of the death.

For a serious injury or illness, or for a death, an employer must report it to the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) immediately, but not more than eight hours after the employer knew or should have known about it. A serious injury or illness is one requiring inpatient hospitalization for more than 24 hours other than for medical observation, or one involving the loss of any member of the body or a serious degree of permanent disfigurement.

For easy reference in an emergency situation, here are the offices and phone numbers where you can make a report of an accident; report the accident to the Cal/OSHA office nearest to where the accident occured:

Region 1

    San Francisco : 415-557-0300 or 415-557-0100
    Fremont: 510-794-2521
    Foster City: 650-573-3812
    Oakland: 510-622-2916
    Santa Rosa: 707-576-2388

Region 2

    Sacramento: 916-263-2800 or 916-263-2803
    Concord: 925-602-6517
    Modesto: 209-545-7310
    Fresno: 559-445-5302
    Redding: 530-224-4743

Region 3

    Santa Ana: 714-558-4300 or 714-558-4451
    San Diego: 619-767-2280
    San Bernardino: 909-383-4321

Region 4

    Monrovia: 626-471-9122
    Los Angeles: 213-576-7451
    West Covina: 626-472-0046
    Van Nuys: 818-901-5403
    Bakersfield: 661-588-6400