Occupational Safety and Health Administration

Rights and responsibilities under OSH Act law

Employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace.[10]

By law, employers must provide their workers with a workplace that does not have serious hazards, and they must follow all OSH Act safety and health standards. Employers are obligated to identify and rectify safety and health problems. The OSH Act further requires that employers must first attempt to eliminate or reduce hazards by making feasible changes in working conditions, rather than relying solely on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs. Examples of effective ways to eliminate or reduce risks include switching to safer chemicals, enclosing processes to trap harmful fumes, or using ventilation systems to clean the air.

Employers must also:

• Inform workers about chemical hazards through training, labels, alarms, color-coded systems, chemical information sheets, and other relevant methods..
• Provide safety training to workers in a language and vocabulary they can understand.[11]
• Keep accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.
• Perform tests in the workplace, such as air sampling, required by some OSH Act standards.
• Provide the required personal protective equipment at no cost to workers, as employers must pay for most types of required personal protective equipment.[12][13]
• Provide hearing exams or other medical tests when required by OSH Act standards.
• Post OSHA citations and annually post injury and illness summary data where workers can see them.[14][15]
• Notify OSHA within eight hours of a workplace fatality and within 24 hours of all work-related inpatient hospitalizations.
• Prominently display the official OSHA Job Safety and Health – It's the Law poster[16] that describes rights and responsibilities under the OSH Act.
• Not retaliate or discriminate against workers[17] for using their rights under the law, including their right to report a work-related injury or illness.

Workers have the right to:[18]

• Working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm.
• File a confidential complaint with OSHA to have their workplace inspected.[19]
• Receive information and training about hazards, methods to prevent harm, and the OSH Act standards that apply to their workplace. The training must be conducted in a language and vocabulary that workers can understand.
• Receive copies of records of work-related injuries and illnesses that occur in their workplace.
• Receive copies of the results from tests and monitoring conducted to identify and measure hazards in their workplace.
• Receive copies of their workplace medical records.
• Participate in an OSHA inspection and speak in private with the inspector.
• File a complaint with OSHA if they have faced retaliation or discrimination from their employer as a result of requesting an inspection or exercising any of their other rights under the OSH Act.
• File a complaint if punished or retaliated against for acting as a 'whistleblower' under the 21 additional federal laws for which OSHA has jurisdiction.[17]

Temporary workers must be treated like permanent employees. Staffing agencies and host employers share joint accountability for temporary workers. Both entities are therefore obligated to comply with workplace health and safety requirements and ensure worker safety and health. OSHA could hold both the host and temporary employers responsible for any violations.[20]

History

From its creation in 1934, the Bureau of Labor Standards of the Department of Labor addressed some work safety issues.[4] The economic boom and associated labor turnover during World War II worsened work safety in nearly all areas of the United States economy, but after 1945 accidents again declined as long-term forces reasserted themselves.[5] Additionally, new and powerful labor unions played an increasingly important role in worker safety post- World War II. In the 1960s, increasing economic expansion again led to rising injury rates, and the resulting political pressures led Congress to establish[5] the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) on April 28, 1971, the date that the Occupational Health and Safety Act became effective.[6] The new agency incorporated much of what had been the original Bureau of Labor Standards. George Guenther was appointed by Labor Secretary James D. Hodgson as the agency's first director.

OSHA has run a number of training, compliance assistance, and health and safety recognition programs throughout its history. The OSHA Training Institute, which trains government and private sector health and safety personnel, began in 1972.[6] In 1978, the agency began a grant-making program, now called the Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, to train workers and employers in reducing workplace hazards.[6] OSHA started the Voluntary Protection Programs in 1982, which allow employers to apply as "model workplaces" to achieve special designation if they meet certain requirements.[6]