Workplace Safety and Health


Purpose of Process (see below how HRSource™ can help):

This process provides guidance to employers on complying with federal or state safety and health regulations.

Contents

Overview:

The Occupational Safety and Health Act, which is administered by Department of Labor's (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulates safety and health conditions in most private industries (except those regulated under other federal statutes, e.g., transportation). Many private employers are regulated through states (including California) operating under OSHA-approved plans. States with OSHA-approved job safety and health programs must set standards that are at least as effective as the equivalent federal standard.

The Act assigns to OSHA two principal functions:

  1. Setting standards
  2. Conducting workplace inspections to assure employers are complying with the standards, and providing a safe and healthy workplace

OSHA standards may require conditions, or the adoption or use of one or more practices, means, methods or processes reasonably necessary and appropriate to protect workers on the job.

It is the responsibility of employers to become familiar with standards applicable to their establishments, to comply with the standards, and to eliminate hazardous conditions to the extent possible. Compliance may include assuring that employees have and use personal protective equipment when required for their safety or health. Employees must comply with all rules and regulations that are applicable to their own actions and practices. Covered employers are required to maintain workplaces that are safe and healthy, including meeting many regulatory requirements. OSHA promulgates safety and health standards, and makes distinctions by type of industry.

  • Safety standards include regulations covering hazards such as falls, explosions, electricity, fires, and cave-ins, as well as machine and vehicle operation and maintenance, etc.
  • Health standards regulate exposures to a variety of health hazards through engineering controls, the use of personal protective equipment (e.g., respirators, ear protection, etc.), and work practices.

Where OSHA has not promulgated a specific standard, employers are responsible for complying with OSHA's "general duty" clause [Section 5(a)(1)], which states that each employer

"shall furnish . . . a place of employment which is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees."

Recommended Steps in the Process:

  1. Establish a safety and health program that complies with the basic OSHA standards:
    • Provide Access to Medical and Exposure Records: This standard requires that employers grant employees access to any of their medical records maintained by the employer and to any records the employer maintains on the employees' exposure to toxic substances.

    • Supply Personal Protective Equipment: This standard requires that employers provide employees, at no cost to employees, with personal protective equipment designed to protect them against certain hazards. This can range from protective helmets in construction and cargo handling work to prevent head injuries, to eye protection, hearing protection, hard-toed shoes, special goggles (for welders, for example) and gauntlets for iron workers.

    • Provide Hazard Communication: This standard requires that manufacturers and importers of hazardous materials conduct a hazard evaluation of the products they manufacture or import. If the product is found to be hazardous under the terms of the standard, containers of the material must be appropriately labeled and the first shipment of the material to a new customer must be accompanied by a material safety data sheet (MSDS). Employers, using the MSDSs they receive, must train their employees to recognize and avoid the hazards the materials present.

    • Recordkeeping and Reporting: Every employer covered by OSHA who has more than 10 employees, except for employers in certain low-hazard industries in the retail, finance, insurance, real estate, and service sectors, must maintain three types of OSHA-specified records of job-related injuries and illnesses.

      The OSHA Form 300 is an injury/illness log, with a separate line entry for each recordable injury or illness. Such events include work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses other than minor injuries that require only first aid treatment and that do not involve medical treatment, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to another job. Each year, the employer must post a summary of the OSHA Form 300 on a Form 300A, which includes the previous year's injuries and illnesses, in the workplace from February through April.

      OSHA Form 301 is an individual incident report that provides added detail about each specific recordable injury or illness. A suitable insurance or workers’ compensation form that provides the same details may be substituted for OSHA Form 301.

      Employers with 10 or fewer employees and employers in statistically low-hazard industries (listed in 29 CFR 1904, Subpart B) are exempt from maintaining these records. Industries currently designated as low-hazard include: automobile dealers; apparel and accessory stores; eating and drinking places; most finance, insurance, and real estate industries; and certain service industries, such as personal and business services, medical and dental offices, and legal, educational, and membership organizations.

      However, in one situation such employers must still keep these records. Each year, the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) conducts a national survey of workplace injuries and illnesses. Participants are selected by the individual states, and all employers selected for the survey, even those usually exempt from the record-keeping requirements, must maintain these records. Before the end of the year, OSHA notifies all selected employers to begin keeping records during the coming year. The state offices that selected the employers are available to help employers complete the forms.

      Each employer, regardless of industry category or the number of its employees, must advise the nearest OSHA office of any accident that results in one or more fatalities or the hospitalization of three or more employees. The employer must so notify OSHA within eight hours of the occurrence of the accident. OSHA often investigates such accidents to determine whether violations of standards contributed to the event.


  2. Cooperate with OSHA Workplace Inspections

    To enforce its standards, OSHA is authorized under the Act to conduct workplace inspections. Every establishment covered by the Act is subject to inspection by OSHA compliance safety and health officers (CSHOs), who are chosen for their knowledge and experience in the occupational safety and health field. CSHOs are thoroughly trained in OSHA standards and in the recognition of safety and health hazards. Similarly, states with their own occupational safety and health programs conduct inspections using qualified state CSHOs.


  3. Grant Employee Rights

    Employees are granted several important rights by the Act. Among them are the right to: complain to OSHA about safety and health conditions in their workplace and have their identity kept confidential from the employer, contest the time period OSHA allows for correcting standards violations, and participate in OSHA workplace inspections.

Special Regulations that Apply to the State of California

Every California employer must establish, implement and maintain a written Injury and Illness Prevention (IIP) Program and a copy must be maintained at each worksite. See the sample Injury and Illness Prevention Program for Non-High Hazard Employers which has been created by the state of California (non-high hazard employers include electric/electronic equipment, computer and office equipment manufacturers). Also provided by the state of California are the following sample forms:

Regulations governing ergonomics in the workplace for the state of California went into effect on July 3, 1997. These are the first regulations in the country to tackle the issue of eliminating repetitive motion injuries on the job.

Repetitive Motion Injuries (RMIs) are injuries resulting from a repetitive job, process, or operation of identical work activity at the workplace which have been the predominant cause of a diagnosed, objectively identified, musculoskeletal injury to more than one employee within the last 12 months. A licensed physician must perform the diagnosis of a RMI. Predominant means 50% or more of the injury was caused by a repetitive job, process or operation of identical work activity.

Every employer subject to this regulation must establish and implement a program designed to minimize RMIs. The program must include a worksite evaluation, control of exposures that have caused RMIs, and training of employees.

  1. Worksite evaluation. Each job, process, or operation of identical work activity covered by this section or a representative number of such jobs, processes, or operations of identical work activities shall be evaluated for exposures that have caused RMIs.

  2. Control of exposures that have caused RMIs. Any exposures that caused RMIs must, in a timely manner, be corrected or, if not capable of being corrected, have the exposures minimized to the extent feasible. Employers must consider engineering controls, such as work station redesign, adjustable fixtures or tool redesign, and administrative controls, such as job rotation, work pacing or work breaks.

  3. Training. Employees shall be provided training that includes an explanation of:
    • The employer's program;
    • The exposures which have been associated with RMIs;
    • The symptoms and consequences of injuries caused by repetitive motion;
    • The importance of reporting symptoms and injuries to the employer; and
    • Methods used by the employer to minimize RMIs.

Measures implemented by an employer in an effort to minimize RMIs will satisfy the employer's obligations. However, if it were shown that a measure known to but not taken by the employer is substantially certain to cause a greater reduction in such injuries and that this alternative measure would not impose additional unreasonable costs, then the employer has not satisfied its obligations.

The Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, better known by its original name Proposition 65, requires the Governor to publish a list of chemicals that are known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm. These chemicals are subject to controls designed to protect California's drinking water sources from contamination by these chemicals, to allow California consumers to make informed choices about the products they purchase, and to enable residents or workers to take whatever action they deem appropriate to protect themselves from exposures to these harmful chemicals (see additional information on Prop 65).

Receiving Citations or Penalties

The following are the types of violations that may be cited and the penalties that may be proposed:

  • Other-Than-Serious Violation: A violation that has a direct relationship to job safety and health, but probably would not cause death or serious physical harm. A proposed penalty of up to $7,000 for each violation is discretionary. A penalty for an other-than-serious violation may be adjusted downward by as much as 95 percent, depending on the employer's good faith (demonstrated efforts to comply with the Act), history of previous violations, and size of business. When the adjusted penalty amounts to less than $50, no penalty is proposed.

  • Serious Violation: A violation where there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and that the employer knew, or should have known, of the hazard. A mandatory penalty of up to $7,000 for each violation is proposed. A penalty for a serious violation may be adjusted downward, based on the employer's good faith, history of previous violations, the gravity of the alleged violation, and size of business.

  • Willful Violation: A violation that the employer intentionally and knowingly commits. The employer either knows that what he or she is doing constitutes a violation, or is aware that a hazardous condition existed and has made no reasonable effort to eliminate it. The Act provides that an employer who willfully violates the Act may be assessed a civil penalty of not more than $70,000 but not less than $5,000 for each violation. A proposed penalty for a willful violation may be adjusted downward, depending on the size of the business and its history of previous violations. Usually no credit is given for good faith.

    If an employer is convicted of a willful violation of a standard that has resulted in the death of an employee, the offense is punishable by a court-imposed fine or by imprisonment for up to six months, or both. A fine of up to $250,000 for an individual, or $500,000 for a corporation [authorized under the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 (1984 CCA), not the OSH Act], may be imposed for a criminal conviction.

  • Repeated Violation: A violation of any standard, regulation, rule or order where, upon reinspection, a substantially similar violation is found. Repeated violations can bring a fine of up to $70,000 for each such violation. To be the basis of a repeat citation, the original citation must be final; a citation under contest may not serve as the basis for a subsequent repeat citation.

  • Failure to Correct Prior Violation: Failure to correct a prior violation may bring a civil penalty of up to $7,000 for each day the violation continues beyond the prescribed abatement date.

Additional violations for which citations and proposed penalties may be issued are as follows:

  • Falsifying records, reports or applications; upon conviction can bring a fine of $10,000 or up to six months in jail, or both;
  • Violations of posting requirements can bring a civil penalty of up to $7,000;
  • Assaulting a compliance officer, or otherwise resisting, opposing, intimidating, or interfering with a compliance officer in the performance of his or her duties is a criminal offense, subject to a fine of not more than $250,000 for an individual and $500,000 for a corporation (1984 CCA) and imprisonment for not more than three years.

Citation and penalty procedures may differ somewhat in states with their own occupational safety and health programs.

Appeals Process

When issued a citation or notice of a proposed penalty, an employer may request an informal meeting with OSHA's area director to discuss the case. Employee representatives may be invited to attend the meeting. The area director is authorized to enter into settlement agreements that revise citations and penalties to avoid prolonged legal disputes. Employers may take the following actions in response to a citation:

  1. Petition for Modification of Abatement (PMA): Upon receiving a citation, the employer must correct the cited hazard by the prescribed date unless he or she contests the citation or abatement date. If factors beyond the employer's reasonable control prevent the completion of corrections by that date, the employer who has made a good faith effort to comply may file a PMA for an extended date. The written petition should specify:
    • All steps taken to achieve compliance,
    • The additional time needed to achieve complete compliance,
    • The reasons this additional time is needed, and
    • All temporary steps being taken to safeguard employees against the cited hazard during the intervening period.

    It should also indicate that a copy of the PMA was posted in a conspicuous place at or near each place where a violation occurred, and that the employee representative (if there is one) received a copy of the petition.


  2. Contest the Citation: If the employer decides to contest either the citation, the time set for abatement, or the proposed penalty, he or she has 15 working days from the time the citation and proposed penalty are received in which to notify the OSHA area director in writing. There is no specific format for the Notice of Contest; however, it must clearly identify the employer's basis for contesting the citation, notice of proposed penalty, abatement period, or notification of failure to correct violations. A copy of the Notice of Contest must be given to the employees' authorized representative. If any affected employees are not represented by a recognized bargaining agent, a copy of the notice must be posted in a prominent location in the workplace, or else served personally upon each unrepresented employee.

  3. Appeal Review Procedure: If the written Notice of Contest has been filed within the required 15 working days, the OSHA area director forwards the case to the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC). The Commission is an independent agency not associated with OSHA or the Department of Labor. The Commission assigns the case to an administrative law judge. The judge may disallow the contest if it is found to be legally invalid, or a hearing may be scheduled for a public place near the employer's workplace. The employer and the employees have the right to participate in the hearing; the OSHRC does not require that they be represented by attorneys. Once the administrative law judge has ruled, any party to the case may request a further review by OSHRC. Any of the three OSHRC commissioners also may individually move to bring a case before the Commission for review. Commission rulings may be appealed to the appropriate U.S. Court of Appeals.

    4. Appeals In State-Plan States: States with their own occupational safety and health programs have a state system for review and appeal of citations, penalties, and abatement periods. The procedures are generally similar to Federal OSHA's, but cases are heard by a state review board or equivalent authority.

Process Tips:

Although OSHA regulations are detailed and lengthy, common-sense safety precautions will eliminate most problems. Observe equipment manufacturer's safety recommendations when operating their equipment. Your workers compensation carrier can also provide assistance in establishing safe and healthy work environments. The federal and state OSHA regulators also offer advise.

To demonstrate the company's commitment to maintaining a safe environment, consider providing employees with home safety information such as the attached flyer on safety guidelines during natural disasters.

How HRSource™ Can Help:

HRSource™ includes the OSHA 300, 300A and 301 reports. HRSource™ can also be used to track work related injuries and the status of injury treatment .

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