Multi-Employer Worksites
Most large construction projects are actually multi-employer worksites composed of the general or prime contractor and a number of subcontractors.
It's important to understand the safety responsibilities of each employer category as more than one employer may be citable by OSHA for violations. Employers may perform one or more roles on a project.
Multi-Employer Categories
The four employer roles or categories on multi-employer worksites are:
- Creating employer: The employer that caused a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard.
- Exposing employer: This is an employer whose own employees are exposed to the hazard.
- Correcting employer: This is an employer who is engaged in a common undertaking, on the same worksite as the exposing employer, and is responsible for correcting a hazard. This usually occurs where an employer is given the responsibility of installing and/or maintaining particular safety/health equipment or devices.
- Controlling employer: This is an employer who has general supervisory authority over the worksite, including the power to correct safety and health violations itself or require others to correct them. Control can be established by contract or, in the absence of explicit contractual provisions, by the exercise of control in practice.
Multiple Roles
As mentioned above, an employer on a multi-employer worksite may, in fact, play a number of roles throughout the project. For instance, an exposing employer may also perform the role of a correcting employer.
For a more complete discussion of these categories, reference OSHA CPL 02-00-124, X. Multi-employer worksites.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
9-6. On a multi-employer project, the _____ has general supervisory authority over the worksite, including the power to correct safety and health violations or require others to correct them.
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