Health & Safety Regulations/Standards

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) was established by the Occupational Safety & Health (OSH) Act of 1970 to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for workers by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education, and assistance. Under the OSHA law, employers are responsible for providing a safe and healthful workplace for their workers.

• Identify hazards.
• Follow all relevant OSHA safety and health standards.
• Correct safety and health hazards.
• Inform employees about chemical hazards through training, labels, alarms, color-coded systems, chemical information sheets and other methods.
• Provide safety training to workers in a language and vocabulary they can understand.
• 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 (1-800-321-OSHA [6742])
• Provide required personal protective equipment (most types) at no cost to workers.
• Keep accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.
• Post OSHA citations, injury and illness summary data, and the OSHA Job Safety and Health – It’s The Law poster in the workplace where workers will see them.
• Not retaliate against any worker for using their rights under the law, including their right to
  report a work-related injury or illness. .

• File a confidential complaint with OSHA to have their workplace inspected.
• Receive information and training about hazards, methods to prevent harm, and the OSHA standards that apply to their workplace.
• The training must be done in a language and vocabulary 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 done to find 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 been retaliated against by their employer as the result of requesting an inspection or using any of their other rights under the OSH Act.
• File a complaint if punished or retaliated against for acting as a “whistleblower” under the more than 20 federal laws for which
  OSHA has jurisdiction.

The OSH Act encourages states to develop and operate their own workplace safety and health programs and precludes state enforcement of OSHA standards unless the state has an approved State Plan. OSHA approves and monitors all State Plans and provides up to fifty percent of the funding for each program. State Plans must be at least as effective as the Federal OSHA program.

State and Local Government Workers
Workers at state and local government agencies are not covered by Federal OSHA, but are afforded OSH Act protections if they work in those states that have an OSHA-approved State Plan. Every State Plan must cover state and local government workers. OSHA regulations allow states and territories to develop State Plans that cover only state and local government workers. In states with state and local government only State Plans, private sector workers and employers remain under Federal OSHA jurisdiction.

Federal Government Workers
OSHA’s protection applies to all federal agencies. Section 19 of the OSH Act makes federal agency heads responsible for providing safe and healthful working conditions for their workers. Although OSHA does not fine federal agencies, it does monitor these agencies and conducts federal workplace inspections in response to workers’ reports of hazards. Federal agencies must have a safety and health program that meets the same standards as private employers.

Private Sector Workers

Federal OSHA covers most private sector employers and workers in 29 states, the District of Columbia, Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island, Johnston Island, and the Outer Continental Shelf Lands. Private sector workers in the remaining 21 states and Puerto Rico are covered by OSHA-approved State Plans.

Sadly, you might not be. Currently 21 states and several U.S. territories provide no safety and health protections for state, county, or municipal workers.

Click this map to see if you are protected.