Responsibilities of workers, supervisors and employers

One Saturday in May, the yard at Greenway was packed. Cars lined the pickup lane, the phones rang without stopping, and three customers were waiting for loads of mulch. Jordan saw a new seasonal worker, Ethan, climb onto the forks of a parked forklift to reach a box on a high shelf in the warehouse. Ethan was only 3 ft (1 m) off the ground, and he laughed when Jordan stared. 'It's faster than finding the ladder,' he said.

Jordan was not Ethan's supervisor, and he had only been at Greenway for three weeks himself. But he knew riding on forks was forbidden, and he knew why: a forklift is not built to lift people, and a fall or a sudden movement of the mast can crush or kill. He told Ethan to get down, then he told Priya. Priya talked to Ethan, then went to find out why the rolling ladder was not where it should have been. It had been taken into the store for a display and not brought back.

That small event shows three kinds of responsibility at once. Ethan had a duty to work safely and not to take shortcuts. Jordan, as a co-worker, had a duty to speak up. Priya, as a supervisor, had a duty to deal with the unsafe act and to fix the condition behind it. And Greenway, as the employer, had a duty to provide the right equipment and to make sure it was where people needed it. This lesson looks at each of those duties.

Why everyone has duties

Lesson 2 explained that the OSH Act puts the main duty on the employer. Section 5(a) says each employer must provide a workplace free of recognized serious hazards and must comply with OSHA standards. Section 5(b) says each employee must comply with the standards and rules that apply to their own actions. OSHA does not cite or fine workers, but employers can and do discipline workers who break safety rules, and workers have a real part in making a program work.

Responsibility in safety is not about blame. It is about who is in a position to do what. A worker cannot buy a new forklift, but they can check it before use and report a fault. An employer cannot watch every lift, but it can make sure the right equipment is there and people are trained to use it. When everyone does what is within their reach, hazards get caught early.

The employer's duties

The employer has the biggest share of responsibility, because it decides how the work is organized, what equipment is bought, who is hired and how they are trained. In plain terms, the employer must:

• Find and control hazards. Look at every job for hazards, decide how to control them, and keep checking. Lesson 5 covers how.
• Provide safe equipment and a safe place to work. That includes maintaining it, guarding machines, providing protective equipment and keeping floors, aisles and exits clear.
• Train and supervise workers. Make sure every worker knows the hazards of their job and how to do it safely before they start, and that a competent supervisor is in charge.
• Set up a safety program. Have written policies and procedures, plan for emergencies, provide first aid, and keep records.
• Involve workers. Support the committee or representative, consult workers about changes, and respond to concerns.
• Report and investigate. Report serious incidents to the regulator and workers' compensation, and investigate incidents to prevent them happening again.
• Never punish workers for raising safety issues.

Many of OSHA's standards add specific duties. For example, the forklift standard requires employers to train and evaluate operators, and to re-evaluate them at least every three years. The hazard communication standard requires training on chemicals before workers are exposed to them. The personal protective equipment standard requires a written hazard assessment to decide what equipment workers need.

At Greenway, Tom Bergeron, the general manager, holds the employer's responsibility on behalf of the owners. He signs the safety policy, sets the budget, and chairs a monthly safety review. But he cannot do it alone. He relies on his supervisors to make the program work every day.

The supervisor's duties

Supervisors are the link between the employer's plans and the work actually being done. A supervisor is anyone who directs the work of others, whether they are called a supervisor, a lead hand, a shift manager, a foreman or something else. For a new worker, the supervisor is the most important person for safety.

A supervisor must:

• Know the hazards of the work they direct and the controls for them.
• Make sure workers are trained before they start a task, and check they can actually do it.
• Tell workers about hazards and how to protect themselves.
• Make sure rules are followed, including the use of protective equipment, and act when they are not.
• Watch new and young workers more closely, until they can work safely on their own.
• Act on reports. When a worker reports a hazard or a near miss, the supervisor must look into it and fix it or pass it up.
• Lead by example. Workers notice when a supervisor skips the safety glasses or walks across the forklift lane.

Under OSHA's rules, supervisors act for the employer. What a supervisor knows, the employer is treated as knowing. If a supervisor sees a hazard and does nothing, the employer can be cited as if it had known all along.

Priya takes this seriously. When she saw Ethan on the forks, she did not just tell him off. She asked why he had done it, found the missing ladder, and asked the store team to sign the ladder out and back in on a board. She also added a five-minute talk about working at height to the next morning's huddle. 'If I just yell at Ethan,' she said later, 'the ladder is still missing tomorrow, and someone else climbs the forks.'

The worker's duties

Workers have fewer duties than employers and supervisors, but the ones they have matter. Every worker must:

• Work safely, taking reasonable care to protect themselves and others.
• Follow the rules and procedures, including safe work procedures and the law.
• Use the equipment and protective gear they are given, and use it properly.
• Not remove or disable guards or safety devices.
• Report hazards, near misses and injuries to their supervisor right away.
• Not do work they are not trained for, and ask when they are unsure.
• Not harass or be violent toward others, and not take part in horseplay that puts people at risk.
• Not work while impaired by alcohol, drugs, including cannabis, or fatigue to the point where they cannot work safely.
• Cooperate with the supervisor, the committee and anyone else with safety duties.

OSHA does not fine workers. But under section 5(b) of the Act, and under Greenway's own rules, workers who ignore safety rules can be disciplined. Arizona's employee responsibilities poster lists the same core duties: follow the rules, wear the protective equipment, do not remove guards, ask when unsure, and report hazards and injuries right away.

Duties to co-workers

Jordan was not Ethan's boss, but he still had a part to play. Workers have a duty to take reasonable care for the safety of others, not only themselves. That does not mean policing your co-workers. It means not staying silent when you see someone about to get hurt, and telling your supervisor if it keeps happening.

Speaking up to a co-worker can feel awkward, especially when you are new and they have been there longer. Doug gave Jordan some advice: 'Don't make it about them. Make it about the hazard. Say "hey, those forks aren't rated for people, I don't want to see you fall," not "you're breaking the rules." Most people just need a second to think.'

Fit for work

One worker duty deserves a closer look: coming to work able to work safely. Impairment is not only about alcohol and drugs. A worker who has slept three hours, who is taking a new medication that causes drowsiness, or who is ill can be just as much of a danger on a forklift as one who has been drinking. Cannabis is legal for adults in Arizona, but being legal does not make it safe at work, in the same way that alcohol is legal but not allowed on shift.

Greenway's fitness for work policy asks workers to tell their supervisor if anything might affect their ability to do their job safely that day. They do not have to explain medical details. The supervisor's job is to find them safer work for the shift, such as working the till instead of driving. Jordan once had to do this himself, after a night with almost no sleep when his younger brother was in hospital. Priya moved him from the yard to pricing plants in the greenhouse for the morning. 'Nobody's going to hold that against you,' she said. 'Telling me is the responsible thing.'

Others with duties

Workplaces include more people than the employer's own staff. Many of them have safety duties too.

• Contractors who come to repair the coolers or maintain the trucks must work safely, follow the site's rules, and coordinate with the host employer about hazards they create or face.
• Suppliers of equipment and chemicals must provide equipment that is safe when used as intended, and chemicals with proper labels and safety data sheets.
• Owners of the building must keep the parts they control, such as the roof, the structure and the fire alarm, in safe condition.
• Temporary agencies and the businesses that use their workers share duties for those workers.
• Customers and visitors are not workers, but the employer must protect them, and can set rules for them, like Greenway's rule that customers stay with their vehicles in the yard.

When duties are not met

Most of the time, people meet their duties without thinking about them. Things go wrong when duties are skipped, often because of time pressure, poor communication, or a belief that 'someone else will deal with it.' On busy Saturdays at Greenway, that belief was the biggest risk. Everyone was rushing, and everyone assumed the hazard they saw had already been reported.

The answer was not to tell people to try harder. Priya and the committee set up a short huddle at the start of each Saturday shift, where the lead named the jobs that would be most rushed and who would watch for what. They also put the near-miss form on a QR code in every work area, so reporting took less than a minute.