Recordkeeping (29 CFR Part 1904, all covered employers)

Multiple Business Establishments

Verified vs OSHA sources · 2026-09-30

29 CFR 1904.30

29 CFR 1904.30 tells an employer with more than one establishment which OSHA 300 Log each case goes on. An establishment expected to operate for a year or longer keeps its own log. Short-term establishments still keep records but can share one log, and every employee is linked to one establishment so no case falls between logs.

Verified against the eCFR (Title 29, current as of September 25, 2026) and the 2001 recordkeeping preamble · September 30, 2026

29 CFR 1904.30 at a glance

The one-year line: A separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to operate one year or longer (1904.30(a))
Jobs under a year: Records still required; one log can cover all short-term establishments, or those of a division or region ((b)(1))
Central records: Allowed if case information arrives within 7 calendar days and copies can be produced on the 1904.35 and 1904.40 deadlines ((b)(2))
Every employee: Linked to one establishment, including crews who move between sites or never work at one ((b)(3))
Where a case goes: At one of your establishments: that establishment's log. Anywhere else: the log where the employee normally works ((b)(4))
In construction: Where work has no single fixed location, the establishment is the office that supervises it or that crews work from (1904.46)

What 29 CFR 1904.30 requires (plain English)

A contractor with a main office, a yard and six jobsites has one question the day someone gets hurt: which log does this go on? 29 CFR 1904.30 answers it. The basic rule is a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer (1904.30(a)). The definitions section fills in what an establishment is: a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. For work like construction, where employees don't work at a single physical location, the establishment is the main or branch office that supervises the work or that crews work from (1904.46).

OSHA gave its own construction example when it wrote the rule. A company working in several states might keep a log per state for its short-term projects, plus a separate log for each construction project expected to last more than one year. A company with one office location and no project lasting more than a year needs only one log (preamble to the recordkeeping rule, 66 FR 6035-6037, January 19, 2001). Short jobs never drop off the books. 1904.30(b)(1) requires records for them and only lets them share a log.

Two more paragraphs keep cases from falling between logs. Every employee is linked to one establishment for recordkeeping, including people who move between sites or don't work at any of them ((b)(3)). And a case goes on the log of the establishment where it happened when it happened at one of yours, or on the log of the establishment where the employee normally works when it happened anywhere else ((b)(4)). The preamble spells out the case that matters on a shared jobsite: an injury at another employer's workplace, or in transit, goes on the log of the employee's home establishment.

The regulatory text

“You must keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment that is expected to be in operation for one year or longer.”

29 CFR 1904.30(a)

Key facts about 29 CFR 1904.30

1904.30(a) requires a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer.
Short-term establishments, those that will exist for less than a year, still need injury and illness records, but one OSHA 300 Log can cover all of them (1904.30(b)(1)).
Records can be kept at headquarters if case information gets there within 7 calendar days and copies can be produced on the deadlines of 1904.35 and 1904.40 (1904.30(b)(2)).
Where employees don't work at a single physical location, as in construction, the establishment is the main or branch office that supervises the work or is the base crews work from (1904.46).
OSHA's 2001 preamble uses a construction company as its example: a log per state for short-term projects, and a separate log for each project expected to last more than one year (66 FR 6035-6037).
An injury at another employer's workplace, or while the employee is in transit, goes on the log of the employee's home establishment (66 FR 6035-6037).
Federal OSHA issued no citation under 1904.30 to a construction employer in fiscal year 2025 (HazComFast count from Labor Department enforcement data).

Scope: who 29 CFR 1904.30 applies to

Regulatory framework: Recordkeeping (29 CFR Part 1904, all covered employers)
Citation reference: 29 CFR 1904.30
Enforcement status: In force and enforced
Jurisdiction: Federal OSHA (29 State-Plan jurisdictions may be stricter)

State-Plan states (e.g. California, Washington, Michigan) operate OSHA-approved programs that must be at least as effective as federal OSHA and frequently impose higher penalties or additional requirements. Confirm the rule as adopted in your state.

Key requirements of 29 CFR 1904.30

#	Employer obligation
1	Keep a separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to be in operation for one year or longer (1904.30(a))
2	Keep injury and illness records for short-term establishments too; one log may cover all of them, or those of a division or geographic region (1904.30(b)(1))
3	Keep records centrally only if case information arrives within 7 calendar days and copies can be produced within the 1904.35 and 1904.40 time frames (1904.30(b)(2))
4	Link each employee to one establishment for recordkeeping, including employees who work at several locations or at none (1904.30(b)(3))
5	Record a case on the log of the establishment where it occurred or, if it occurred away from your establishments, on the log where the employee normally works (1904.30(b)(4))

Summarized from the text of 29 CFR 1904.30. Always read the full regulation for the binding language.

Common Multiple Establishments violations

Federal OSHA issued no citation under 1904.30 to a construction employer in fiscal year 2025 (HazComFast count from Labor Department enforcement data). The deficiencies the text makes citable:

No separate OSHA 300 Log for an establishment expected to operate one year or longer (1904.30(a)).
No injury and illness records at all for short-term jobsites (1904.30(b)(1)).
Records kept centrally without case information arriving within 7 calendar days, or without the ability to produce copies on the 1904.35 or 1904.40 deadline (1904.30(b)(2)).
Employees linked to no establishment, so their cases never reach a log (1904.30(b)(3)).
A case recorded on the home-office log when it happened at another of the employer's establishments (1904.30(b)(4)).

A jobsite is not automatically its own establishment

Two errors show up on construction logs. The first is keeping a separate 300 Log for every job. The rule doesn't ask for it when the work is expected to last less than a year: one log can carry all your short-term sites, or one per division or region (1904.30(b)(1)). The second is the reverse. A project that runs two or three years, with its own trailer and superintendent, stays on the office log. A project expected to be in operation for a year or longer gets its own log (1904.30(a)), and OSHA used that exact construction example when it wrote the rule. The schedule at mobilization tells you which case you're in.

What OSHA inspectors look for

When a compliance officer asks for your Part 1904 records, you have four business hours to produce copies (1904.40(a)), and 1904.30(b)(2) makes central storage conditional on meeting that deadline. The logs you hand over should line up with your establishments: one for each establishment expected to operate a year or longer, and a log that carries the short-term sites.

Example: how a violation is cited

A concrete contractor runs a two-year hospital job, a string of three-month parking-deck repairs and a shop, and keeps one OSHA 300 Log at the office for everything. Under 1904.30 the hospital job, expected to run longer than a year, needs its own log. The short repair jobs can share one log or go on a division or regional log. A finisher hurt on the hospital job is recorded on the hospital job's log, not the office's (1904.30(a), (b)(1), (b)(4)).

Illustrative example, not a specific OSHA case.

29 CFR 1904.30 step by step

Step 1
List your establishments
The main office, each branch, yard or shop, and each project you expect to be in operation for a year or longer (1904.30(a); 1904.46).
Step 2
Open the logs
A separate OSHA 300 Log for each establishment expected to operate a year or longer, and one shared log for the short-term sites, or one per division or region (1904.30(a), (b)(1)).
Step 3
Link every employee
Tie each employee, traveling crews included, to one establishment for recordkeeping (1904.30(b)(3)).
Step 4
Record where it happened
A case at one of your establishments goes on that establishment's log; a case elsewhere goes on the log where the employee normally works (1904.30(b)(4)).
Step 5
If you centralize, meet the clocks
Case information reaches the central office within 7 calendar days, and copies go out within 4 business hours to a government representative and by the end of the next business day to an employee (1904.30(b)(2); 1904.40(a); 1904.35(b)(2)(iii)).

2026 penalties for 29 CFR 1904.30

Maximums set by 29 CFR 1903.15(d). 2026 amounts unchanged from 2025 (no CPI adjustment; OMB M-26-11). Not an increase. The 2025 OSHA penalty levels remain in effect for 2026; OSHA made no inflation adjustment for 2026. 29 CFR 1903.15 identifies January 15, 2025 as the effective reference for these amounts, while OSHA's public penalties page currently references penalties assessed after Jan. 15, 2026.

Violation type	Minimum	Maximum	When it applies
Serious	$1,085	$16,550	Substantial probability of death or serious physical harm.
Other-Than-Serious	$0	$16,550	Relates to safety/health but unlikely to cause death or serious harm.
Willful	$11,823	$165,514	Intentional, knowing, or voluntary disregard of the requirement.
Repeated	$4,256	$165,514	A substantially similar violation cited within the last 5 years.
Failure to Abate	None	$16,550/day	up to $16,550 per day; total capped at 30x the daily amount (FOM Ch.6)

A violation of 1904.30 falls under the same maximums as any OSHA violation: up to $16,550 for a serious or other-than-serious violation and up to $165,514 for a willful or repeated one (29 CFR 1903.15(d)). Federal OSHA issued no citation under 1904.30 to a construction employer in fiscal year 2025 (HazComFast count from Labor Department enforcement data).

Maximums and the willful minimum are set by 29 CFR 1903.15(d); the serious and repeated minimums are OSHA policy floors from its annual penalty adjustment memo. OSHA applies gravity-based and size, good-faith and history reductions (FOM CPL 02-00-164 Ch.6). Estimates only, not legal advice.

The business case for Multiple Establishments compliance

OSHA chose to record cases where they happen for a stated reason: the events or exposures that caused a case are most likely to be present at that location, so the data are most useful for analyzing that location's records (66 FR 6035-6037). A two-year project whose cases sit on the office log is a project whose hazards don't show up anywhere. The same logs feed the 300A that is certified and posted each year and the electronic submission some establishments owe.

Free compliance tools for 29 CFR 1904.30

OSHA Recordability Decision Tree OSHA 300A Auto-Filler ITA Reporting Checker

Multiple Establishments penalties by state

Penalties and enforcement vary by state. State-Plan states may impose higher penalties and additional requirements beyond federal 29 CFR 1904.30.

Alabama Arkansas Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia

View all 50 states + DC →

Frequently asked questions about 29 CFR 1904.30

Do I need a separate OSHA 300 Log for each jobsite?

Only for a jobsite expected to be in operation for one year or longer (29 CFR 1904.30(a)). A job expected to last less than a year is a short-term establishment: you keep records for it, but one OSHA 300 Log can cover all your short-term establishments, or you can put them on a log for a company division or geographic region (1904.30(b)(1)).

What counts as an establishment for a construction company?

An establishment is a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. For activities where employees do not work at a single physical location, such as construction, the establishment is represented by the main or branch offices that supervise the work or are the base from which personnel carry it out (29 CFR 1904.46).

Can we keep every log at the main office?

Yes, if two conditions hold: information about each case reaches the central location within seven calendar days of your receiving it, and you can produce and send the records within the deadlines of 1904.35 and 1904.40 when a government representative, an employee, a former employee or an employee representative asks for them (29 CFR 1904.30(b)(2)).

A worker from our shop gets hurt at one of our jobsites. Which log?

The log of the establishment where the injury happened (29 CFR 1904.30(b)(4)). If that jobsite is a short-term establishment, that means the log that covers it, such as your shared short-term log (1904.30(b)(3)).

What if the injury happens on another contractor's site?

If the employee is not at one of your establishments, the case goes on the log of the establishment where the employee normally works (29 CFR 1904.30(b)(4)). OSHA's 2001 preamble gives the same answer for an injury at another employer's workplace or in transit: the employee's home establishment (66 FR 6035-6037). Which employer records it at all is a separate question, answered by day-to-day supervision under 1904.31.

Does a job that lasts only a few months need injury records?

Yes. 1904.30(b)(1) says records are required for short-term establishments, those that will exist for less than a year. What you don't need is a separate log for each one.

Regulatory history of 29 CFR 1904.30

1904.30 took its current form in the recordkeeping rule published January 19, 2001 (66 FR 5916). Its preamble describes the one-year line as flexibility for employers in construction, transportation, communications, electric and gas utilities and sanitary services, and for other employers with geographically dispersed operations (66 FR 6035-6037).

Related glossary terms

Key terms that appear in 29 CFR 1904.30, each with a full plain-English explainer.

OSHA 300 Log OSHA 300A Summary Recordable Injury Injury Tracking Application

Related guides & articles

The Four-Business-Hour Rule: Producing Your OSHA 300 Logs During an Inspection Temporary & Leased Workers: Who Records and Who Trains? (1904.31)OSHA 300 Log Requirements

Related OSHA standards

29 CFR 1910.1020

Exposure & Medical Records

29 CFR 1904.4

Recording Criteria

29 CFR 1904.5

Work-Relatedness

29 CFR 1904.7

General Recording Criteria

Primary sources

The texts quoted on this page were read on the eCFR (Title 29, current as of September 25, 2026) and the 2001 recordkeeping preamble, September 30, 2026. Penalty figures come from HazComFast's regulatory module (verified 2026-10-05 against eCFR, OSHA.gov, and the Federal Register).

This page is an educational summary, not legal advice. OSHA standards and penalty amounts change; confirm requirements against the current regulation and your applicable State-Plan before acting.

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