Five years, counted from the end of the calendar year the records cover (29 CFR 1904.33(a)). That applies to four things: the 300 log, the 301 incident reports, the 300A annual summary, and the confidential privacy case list if you have one. Your 2026 records stay in the file through December 31, 2031.
What the shelf looks like
At any given moment you should be able to put your hands on five closed years plus the current one. In August 2026 that means:
| Log year | Keep through |
|---|---|
| 2021 | December 31, 2026 |
| 2022 | December 31, 2027 |
| 2023 | December 31, 2028 |
| 2024 | December 31, 2029 |
| 2025 | December 31, 2030 |
| 2026 (current) | December 31, 2031 |
Each year's set is the full kit: log, incident reports, signed summary, privacy list. Keeping only the 300A totals doesn't satisfy the rule.
Stored doesn't mean frozen
The five years aren't purely archival. If you learn about a recordable case from a stored year, or a stored case's classification changes (say a lingering injury finally requires days away), you must update that year's 300 log (1904.33(b)(1)). The 300A summary and the 301 reports are different: updating them is allowed but not required (1904.33(b)(2) and (b)(3)). In practice this means old logs need to live somewhere editable, not in a banker's box sealed with packing tape.
Paper or digital?
Either. Equivalent electronic records are acceptable as long as you can produce completed forms when they're required, and the bar for "when required" is concrete: a government representative conducting an inspection gets copies within four business hours of asking (1904.40(a)). Employees and former employees also have access rights to the log and to their own 301s (1904.35). Whatever the format, the test is the same: can you produce a given year, complete and legible, on short notice? Five years of paper in a truck toolbox usually fails that test the hard way.
Selling or buying the business
Injury records follow the establishment, not the person who kept them. When a business changes ownership, the prior owner transfers the Part 1904 records to the new owner, and the new owner must preserve them for the rest of the retention period, though they don't have to update the prior owner's entries. Each owner records only their own period of the year (1904.34). If you're acquiring a company, the old logs belong in the closing checklist along with the truck titles.
Why keeping them well matters beyond the rule
- GC prequalification. General contractors routinely ask for three years of 300A summaries and TRIR history. Companies that can't produce them lose bids quietly.
- Inspections open with a document request. Logs, incident reports, posted summaries. Complete, consistent, dated records set the tone for everything after.
- Insurance and comp disputes reach back years, and the 301 details are often the only contemporaneous account of what happened.
A records vault that does its own remembering
SiteSafetyHQ keeps every year's log, 301s, signed 300A, and privacy list together, encrypted, and exportable in one click. Old years stay editable the way 1904.33 expects, and nothing lives in a glovebox.
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Quick answers
Do I keep records for employees who left?
Yes. Retention runs by record year, not by employment. A 2024 case stays in the 2024 set through 2029 whether or not the person still works for you. Former employees keep their access rights to their own records, too.
We had zero injuries some years. Keep anything?
Keep the signed zero-total 300A you posted (and the log, which exists even when empty, if you were required to keep one). Proving a clean year later is exactly as valuable as it sounds on a prequal form.
Can I toss records after five years?
Part 1904 stops requiring them, and nothing in it forbids disposal. Two cautions before the shredder: other retention duties can apply to related files (workers' comp, medical surveillance records under specific standards), and injury history is useful for rates and prequals well past five years. Storage is cheap; rebuilding history isn't possible.
Primary sources (checked August 4, 2026): 29 CFR 1904.33 (retention and updating) · 29 CFR 1904.34 (change in business ownership) · 29 CFR 1904.35 (employee involvement) · 29 CFR 1904.40 (providing records)
SiteSafetyHQ is an independent product, not affiliated with OSHA. Workflow help, not legal advice.