Employer Responsibilities

No worker should sacrifice their life or health for the sake of generating wealth for their employer. Speaking bluntly, if you die on the job, your family will suffer. Your employer may pay a fine but will likely hire another worker to take your place. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created to reduce workplace deaths, injuries, and occupational diseases. While some may joke or complain about job site safety hindering their work, fatalities, occupational injuries, and occupational illnesses have significantly declined since OSHA came into being.

Employers are required by federal law to provide a safe workplace. (Employer Responsibilities | Occupational Safety and Health Administration )

Employers are required by federal law to provide a safe workplace, and OSHA keeps a specific list of employer responsibilities. Among these responsibilities, some actions your employer should take to protect you include:

• Ensure the work site is free from serious hazards and complies with safety rules
• Make sure employers use safe tools that have been maintained
• Use signs and other means to warn people of hazards
• Ensure employees follow up to date safe operating procedures
• Provide training and medical exams per OSHA requirements
• Display OSHA information posters to inform employees of their workplace rights
• Report all workplace fatalities, hospitalizations and serious injuries within 24 hours
• Keep records of workplace injuries and illnesses. Workers are allowed access to these
• Allow workers to see a record of workplace injuries and their own medical records
• Provide OSHA a list of employees who can accompany job site inspections
• Employers are forbidden from discriminating or retaliating against whistleblower employees.
• Post any OSHA citations near the area where the violation occurred
• Correct any cited violations
• Employers are encouraged to have a written safety and health program.

Employers must legally abide by OSHA rules and standards unless they are in a state with its own safety and health administration. Individual states may have their own regulations and enforcement, provided they are equivalent to or exceed OSHA standards. In Washington state, the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) is the agency that manages the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), which works to ensure employers abide by the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA).

Employee Responsibilities

As an employee, you have certain rights guaranteed by OSHA.

Here is a summary of your rights as a worker:

• You have the right to receive workplace safety and health training in a language you understand
• You have the right to work with machines that are safe
• You have the right to receive the required safety equipment for your job, from gloves and earplugs to a harness and hardhat
• You have the right to be protected from toxic chemicals
• You have the right to request an OSHA safety inspection and to speak to the inspector and to be protected from retaliation for doing so
• You have the right to report injuries, review records of work-related injuries and illnesses, and to see your medical records
• You have the right to see the results of tests taken to find workplace hazards

Speak up for safety’s sake!

While government laws require employers and their employees to abide by specific job site rules to ensure a safe workplace, it is each person’s ethical responsibility to work to make a job site safe for all. Not only should you adhere to safe workplace policies, you should encourage others to do so as well. Do not let peer pressure or fear of employer retaliation hinder you from reporting unsafe acts or unsafe conditions.

That doesn’t mean you should call a government agency whenever you see someone not wearing their earplugs correctly. Use discretion. Start by talking to the people involved in the hazard, then if that is ineffective, seek out a foreperson or safety representative. Simply letting someone know their safety gear is damaged or incorrectly used may save someone from serious injury or death. Learn safe work practices and observe what is happening around you. If you can correct an unsafe condition, then do so. If you cannot, isolate the area and inform someone who can correct the unsafe condition. Remember, workers have a legal right to refuse to work in dangerous situations. Do not ignore unsafe acts and unsafe conditions! Your voice may make the difference between a workplace accident and everyone going home healthy and uninjured at the end of the day.

Attributions

1. Figure 2.2: image released under the Pexels License
2. Figure 2.3: image released under the Pixabay License
3. Figure 2.4: Construction worker for the Panama Canal expansion project by World Bank Photo Collection is released under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0