Employer Responsibilities
Employers have the responsibility to provide a safe workplace. Employers MUST provide their employees with a workplace that does not have serious hazards and must follow all OSHA safety and health standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems.
OSHA further requires that employers must try to eliminate or reduce hazards first by making feasible changes in working conditions - switching to safer chemicals, enclosing processes to trap harmful fumes, or using ventilation systems to clean the air are examples of effective ways to get rid of or minimize risks - rather than just relying on personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, or earplugs.
Employers must also do the following:
- Prominently display the official OSHA poster that describes rights and responsibilities under the OSH Act
- Inform workers about hazards through training, labels, alarms, color-coded systems, chemical information sheets, and other methods
- Train workers in a language and vocabulary they can understand
- Keep accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses
- Perform tests in the workplace, such as air sampling, required by some OSHA standards
- Provide hearing exams or other medical tests required by OSHA standards
- Post OSHA citations and injury and illness data where workers can see them
- Notify OSHA within 8 hours of a workplace fatality or within 24 hours of any work-related inpatient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye
- Not retaliate against workers for using their Workers' Rights under the law, including their right to report a work-related injury or illness
A job must be safe or it cannot be called a good job. OSHA strives to make sure that every employee in the nation goes home unharmed at the end of the workday, the most important right of all.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-5. What is the primary responsibility of employers according to OSHA?
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