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

• Primary requirements for employers are: 29 CFR 1903, 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.
• OSH Act: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which is the enabling legislation for OSHA.
• OSHA: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration — the federal agency that sets and enforces worker safety and health laws.
• 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:

• Provide employees (including temporary employees) with a safe and healthful workplace free from recognized, serious hazards.
• Follow all relevant OSHA safety and health standards. They should not deviate from a standard unless an OSHA variance is applied for and granted.
• Conduct any required tests to assess hazards at work and conduct required inspections.
• Find and correct recognized, serious safety and health hazards.
• Provide employees with required training in a language they can understand.
• Inform employees about chemical hazards through hazard communication.
• Provide required personal protective equipment (PPE) and protective clothing, at no cost to employees with some exceptions.
• Notify OSHA within 8 hours of a workplace fatality and within 24 hours of any work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of eye.
• Keep accurate records of work-related injuries/illnesses, post the annual summary, and electronically submit data annually, as required.
• Display the 8.5- by 14-inch OSHA poster (or a state-plan state equivalent) where employees will see it. The latest version is OSHA 3165-02R 2026, but earlier editions or versions are compliant.
• Meet applicable multi-employer requirements, and protect contract workers in the workplace if the employer is considered a creating, exposing, correcting, or controlling employer per the Multi-Employer Citation Policy, CPL 02-00-124.
• Not retaliate or discriminate against employees for exercising their rights under the OSH Act. See publication OSHA 3812, “Protection From Retaliation ...”
• Post OSHA citations until a violation has been abated, or for three working days, whichever is later.