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OSHA Tells DaimlerChrysler Electronic Signatures are Okay

31 August 2000

OSHA Tells DaimlerChrysler Electronic Signatures are Okay, NetCompliance Website Reveals

    WASHINGTON & SEATTLE--Aug. 31, 2000--In a move that will continue to help improve how federal paperwork requirements are handled by corporate America, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently informed DaimlerChrysler it would accept management's electronic signatures on employee training certificates, according to an OSHA interpretation letter which has been posted on the website of NetCompliance, Inc., (www.netcompliance.com), the nation's leading provider of Web-based "paperless" compliance solutions and on-line worker training programs.
    Just once since 1993 has OSHA in an interpretive letter addressed the issue of allowing electronic signatures on their certificates.
    The agency's interpretive letter to DaimlerChrysler is significant because it comes from a major federal agency and is one of the first official government actions which reaffirms President Clinton's desire to eliminate legal barriers to using electronic technology in the collection and storage of documents and the signing of contracts.
    President Clinton in June signed the "Electronic Signatures In Global And National Commerce Act" and said in his remarks that "government agencies will have the authority to enforce the laws, protect the public interest, and carry out their missions in the electronic world." Clinton said he envisioned a time when "vast warehouses of paper will be replaced by servers about the size of VCRs."
    "Firms have had to memorialize their transactions with pen and ink signatures, and traded their hard copy documents back and forth, slowing down the pace of commerce," said Krish R. Krishnan, NetCompliance's CEO. "But OSHA's actions in its recent interpretation letter, coupled with the new electronic signature law signed by the President, signals that business can and should use digital technologies to meet government recordkeeping requirements," he said. "It is our hope that other state and federal agencies follow OSHA's lead in promoting the use of E-Signatures on compliance documents."
    According to the OSHA letter, DaimlerChrysler Safety and Health Specialist Robert Champion asked the agency earlier this year that, in light of new innovations in computer technology, would OSHA accept electronic signatures in lieu of hard copy signatures for mandatory OSHA required training records.
    OSHA's Richard Fairfax, Director of the agency's Compliance Programs, said that the agency's standards "generally require the employer and trainers to sign a certification record which includes the identity of the person(s) trained; signatures of the employees are not required."
    However, Fairfax added that "If you mean every time the (management or training) person signs, his or her signature will be electronically stored, then OSHA would have no objection to the use of an electronic signature pad to satisfy the certification requirements."
    OSHA's willingness to accept E-Signatures is important in the face of the staggering cost of regulatory compliance and paperwork requirements. According to a Rochester Institute of Technology study, Americans will spend over $700 billion this year in compliance costs.
    Meanwhile, the publication "Training Industry Report", estimates that business training of workers via the Internet increased from 8 percent in 1998 to 13 percent in 1999.
    "Employers spend tens of millions of dollars each year in providing off-site worker training," said NetCompliance COO John Domenech. "The Internet is rapidly becoming the medium of choice for collecting, storing, publishing and distributing regulatory compliance knowledge and training information," he said. "The advent of increased E-Signature usage, coupled with the unique compliance and training technology offered by NetCompliance, allows hundreds of thousands of companies nationwide the ability to manage their compliance needs better, faster and cheaper via the Internet."
    NetCompliance, Inc., headquartered in Seattle, WA, with offices around the US, uses its eComply(TM) technology to allow businesses to meet federal and state regulations, using an integrated information commerce suite of compliance and training modules delivered via the Internet.
    The company is a member of the Congressional Internet Caucus, which includes other stellar companies such as Microsoft, MCI, IBM and AOL. NetCompliance just announced a strategic partnership deal with the prestigious Washington, DC law firm of Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, to pursue business relationships with Fortune 1000 companies seeking online compliance solutions.