8.2 OSHA Records, Document Retainage & Penalties

8.2 OSHA Records, Document Retainage & Penalties

B&F Area C also tests OSHA document and record retainage and the penalties that follow when the file is empty, late, or false. The trade exam's OSHA book is 29 CFR 1926 (July 1, 2025 edition) on the 2026 Air Conditioning A CBT list. Injury-and-illness recordkeeping lives in 29 CFR Part 1904. Florida HVAC contractors hit both: 1926 on the roof, 1904 in the office. Retainage in this section means two different things the exam will mix: keeping documents for the required period, and withholding money on public construction under F.S. 255.078 and 218.735. Do not confuse a five-year OSHA log with a 5% progress-payment holdback.

Who must keep OSHA injury records

29 CFR 1904.1 is a partial exemption, not a safety exemption. If the company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, it does not have to keep the OSHA 300 / 300A / 301 set unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics writes and tells it to. All employers covered by the OSH Act still must report a work-related fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye under 1904.39. Construction (NAICS 23) is not on the low-hazard industry list in 1904.2. A 12-person HVAC shop that peaked at 12 last summer keeps the logs even if it is back to eight technicians in January.

Recordable under 1904.7 means a work-related injury or illness that results in death, days away from work, restricted work or job transfer, medical treatment beyond first aid, loss of consciousness, or a significant injury or illness diagnosed by a physician or other licensed health care professional. A rooftop cut that takes a bandage is first aid. A rooftop cut that takes sutures is medical treatment and goes on the log. Work-relatedness is presumed for events in the work environment (1904.5).

Three forms:

• OSHA Form 300 — Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.
• OSHA Form 301 — Injury and Illness Incident Report (or an equivalent that captures the same facts).
• OSHA Form 300A — Annual Summary.

1904.29: enter each recordable case on the 300 and complete the 301 within seven (7) calendar days of receiving information that a recordable case occurred. Privacy-concern cases go on the log as privacy case, with a separate confidential name list.

Posting, certification, electronic filing, and access

1904.32: a company executive must certify the 300A — an owner, a corporate officer, the highest-ranking company official working at the establishment, or that official's immediate supervisor. The safety coordinator who is none of those people cannot certify. Post the 300A no later than February 1 of the following year and keep it posted until April 30, in a conspicuous place where employee notices are customarily posted, unaltered.

1904.41 electronic submission through OSHA's Injury Tracking Application is an establishment-size and industry-list duty. Establishments with 20–249 employees in Appendix A industries (construction is designated) submit 300A information. Establishments with 250 or more employees that must keep records also submit 300A. Establishments with 100 or more employees in Appendix B industries also submit 300 and 301 data. The due date in 1904.41(c) is March 2 of the year after the year the forms cover. If the shop is not in those categories, it submits only if OSHA notifies it.

1904.40: when an authorized government representative asks for Part 1904 records, produce copies within four (4) business hours. 1904.35: employees and their representatives get access to the 300 / 300A; a current or stored 300 Log is due by the end of the next business day. The employee's own 301 is due by the end of the next business day; an authorized representative asking for 301s gets them within seven calendar days, with privacy fields removed.

How long you retain the documents

1904.33(a) is the number the exam wants: save the OSHA 300 Log, the privacy-case list, the annual summary, and the OSHA 301 Incident Reports for five (5) years following the end of the calendar year those records cover. During that five-year storage period you must update stored 300 Logs for newly discovered recordable cases and for classification changes; you are not required to update the 300A or the 301s (1904.33(b)).

That is not the only OSHA clock. 29 CFR 1926.33 incorporates general-industry 1910.1020 (access to employee exposure and medical records). Employee medical records are generally retained for the duration of employment plus 30 years; employee exposure records (including, in many cases, SDS identity information used as an exposure record) for 30 years. Mixing the 5-year injury log with the 30-year medical file is how a qualifier fails a document-retainage question.

Severe-injury reporting is not the 300 log

1904.39(a)(1): report a work-related fatality to OSHA within eight (8) hours. 1904.39(a)(2): report an in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. The 10-employee exemption does not apply. A helper who falls from a 6-foot roof edge (1926.501 construction fall-protection trigger) and is admitted inpatient starts a 24-hour clock that is independent of whether you posted last year's 300A.

Penalties after January 15, 2026

OSHA publishes inflation-adjusted civil penalty maximums. After January 15, 2026, the posted maximums are:

Recordkeeping failures stack: a missing 7-day 301, a 300A that was never posted, a 5-year file that was shredded, and a false certification can be separate citations. Willful means the employer knew of the requirement and intentionally disregarded it, or was plainly indifferent. Repeated means a substantially similar violation after a prior citation. These numbers are civil maximums, not a prediction of what a Tampa Area Office will propose on a first inspection.

Florida public retainage — money, not the OSHA folder

On state public construction services, F.S. 255.078(1) lets a public entity withhold from each progress payment not exceeding 5 percent of the payment as retainage. The 5% cap does not apply if the contract's total construction-services cost is $200,000 or less (255.078(6)), or where federal grantor rules conflict (255.078(5)). The public entity may withhold less than 5%, reduce retainage on a schedule, or release it early; if it pays retainage attributable to a sub or supplier, the contractor must timely remit it (255.078(2)). Good-faith written disputes and 255.05 bond claims can still hold money (255.078(3)).

F.S. 255.077 is close-out. The contract must provide a punch-list process. For projects under $10 million, develop the list within 30 calendar days after substantial completion (or beneficial occupancy or use if the contract does not define substantial completion). For $10 million or more, 30 calendar days unless extended by contract not to exceed 45 calendar days. Within 20 business days after developing the list, and after a proper invoice, the public entity pays the remaining contract balance including remaining retainage, less 150 percent of the estimated cost to complete the punch-list items (255.077(4)). Good-faith disputes: continue to withhold not more than 150 percent of the cost to complete those disputed items (255.077(5)). Warranty items do not hold final retainage (255.077(7)). If the public entity fails to develop the list on time, the contractor may invoice remaining retainage and the entity must pay it within 20 days of the request, unless the contractor failed to cooperate or 255.078(3) applies (255.077(9)).

Local governments follow the same 5% cap and $200,000 floor in F.S. 218.735. Private retainage is a contract term; Florida does not impose the 5% public cap on a custom-home changeout. Chapter 6 covered G702 arithmetic. Here the operations point is cash: 5% of a $1.2 million school mechanical contract is $60,000 sitting in someone else's account until punch-list math releases it. Schedule close-out and the 255.077 list the same way you schedule the crane.

Florida HVAC scenario

Gulf Coast Mechanical (18 employees last year, so 1904 logs are required) is finishing a county school RTU job over $200,000. A technician takes sutures after a sheet-metal cut on March 3. The 301 and 300 entry are due within 7 calendar days. The 300A for that year posts February 1 through April 30 of the next year and stays in the file five years after year-end. Produce the file to an OSHA CSHO within four business hours if asked. The same job's public retainage cannot exceed 5% of each progress payment. At substantial completion the punch list is due within 30 calendar days; 20 business days later the county should pay remaining retainage less 150% of punch-list cost — damper adjustments and a missing thermostat, not a new warranty compressor. Shredding last year's 300 log because the shop had a clean year is a 1904.33 violation. Treating a fatality report as something you put on the 300 when you get to it is an 8-hour 1904.39 violation. Those are different clocks, and both are Area C.