OSHA

Scope

OSHA covers most private sector employers and workers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and other United States jurisdictions either directly through federal OSHA or through an OSHA-approved State Plan. (State Plans are OSHA-approved job safety and health programs operated by individual states instead of federal OSHA.)

Regulatory citations

• Numerous — Primary requirements for employers are: 29 CFR 1904, 1910, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1926

Key definitions

• CSHO (Compliance Safety and Health Officer): The federal OSHA employee who conducts inspections for the agency — a.k.a. “OSHA Inspector.”
• General Duty Clause (GDC): A section of the OSH Act — Section 5(a)(1) — that requires employers to protect employees from recognized, serious hazards, regardless of whether there is a specific standard addressing that hazard. OSHA often uses the GDC to cite employers for not protecting workers from ergonomic-type hazards, workplace violence, and heat stress.
• General Industry: The group of industries who are covered by OSHA’s Part 1910 regulations. This includes the majority of workplaces, except for construction, agriculture, and maritime.
• OSHA: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration — the federal agency that sets and enforces worker safety and health laws.
• OSH Act: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which is the enabling legislation for OSHA.
• Repeated violation: A hazardous/violative condition that is the same or similar to a previously cited condition in the past five years at either the same establishment or another establishment of the same company under federal OSHA jurisdiction.
• Serious violation: A violation where there is a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result, and the employer knew or should have known of the hazard.
• Willful violation: A violation that the employer intentionally and knowingly commits.

Summary of requirements

Under the OSH Act, employers must:

• Follow all relevant OSHA safety and health standards.
• Find and correct safety and health hazards.
• Inform employees about chemical hazards through training, labels, alarms, color-coded systems, chemical information sheets, and other methods.
• Notify OSHA within 8 hours of a workplace fatality or within 24 hours of any work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of eye.
• Provide required personal protective equipment (PPE) at no cost to workers. (Note that employers must pay for most types of PPE; athough, there are a few exceptions such as non-specialty prescription safety glasses and non-specialty steel-toe shoes, provided employees are allowed to take the equipment home with them.)
• Keep accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.
• Post OSHA citations, injury and illness summary data, and the OSHA Job Safety and Health — It’s The Law poster in the workplace where workers will see them.
• Not retaliate against any worker for exercising their rights under the law.

Agency contacts

• OSHA consultation services
• OSHA regional offices
• OSHA area offices
• Hazard communication: State agencies
• Other relevant addresses

Many trade associations collect and disseminate information on workplace safety and health matters to better serve their members. The following are examples of professional associations that have a broad range of expertise and information on workplace safety and health.

• Association addresses