Your rights and responsibilities under OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act) created OSHA and gave it the power to set and enforce workplace safety standards. For construction, the main standards are in 29 CFR Part 1926, and some general industry standards in Part 1910 also apply. In the 22 states and territories with OSHA-approved state plans that cover private employers, a state agency enforces its own standards, which must be at least as effective as OSHA's; elsewhere, including Ohio, federal OSHA enforces. This lesson explains what the law requires of employers, what it gives workers, and what it expects of workers in return.

Knowing the law is not about memorizing section numbers. It is about knowing that you are entitled to training, information and protection, that you have duties of your own, and that you have a way to say no when a job is dangerous without losing your job for it.

Everyone has a part

OSHA's approach puts the primary legal responsibility on employers, because they control the workplace, the equipment and the way work is organized. But a site is only safe when everyone does their part, and the law also sets out what workers must do. On a multi-employer construction project, several employers share responsibility for the same hazards.

On top of OSHA's specific standards, section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act, known as the general duty clause, requires every employer to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. OSHA uses it for serious hazards that no specific standard covers, such as heat stress. Section 5(b) requires each employee to comply with the standards, rules and orders that apply to their own actions and conduct.

Your rights as a worker

OSHA summarizes workers' rights in a list that every employer must display on the OSHA poster. The rights that matter most to a new construction worker are these.

Refusing dangerous work

OSHA does not give workers a general right to walk off the job because conditions are unsafe. But you do have the right to refuse dangerous work if all of the following are true: you believe in good faith that there is an imminent danger of death or serious injury; you asked your employer to eliminate the danger and it did not; a reasonable person would agree the danger is real; and there is not enough time to get the hazard corrected through the normal inspection process. If you refuse under these conditions, your employer may not retaliate against you. Even where a refusal does not meet these tests, you can still report the hazard and file a complaint.

On Kingsway Tower, the right was tested in Maya's third week. Dave asked her to carry pipe to the north side of the sixth floor, where the cover over a large mechanical opening had been moved by another trade and was lying beside the hole. Maya told Dave she would not work near the opening until it was covered or guarded. Dave looked, agreed, called Anika, and the opening was guarded within twenty minutes. There was no argument. That is the way the process is supposed to work: most refusals end at the first conversation, because the hazard is obvious once someone points it out.

Retaliation is prohibited under section 11(c). Retaliation can mean being fired, demoted, given worse shifts or assignments, denied overtime, reported to immigration authorities, or threatened. The 30-day deadline to file a complaint with OSHA is short, so act quickly if it happens. Many states also have their own whistleblower laws.

Your responsibilities as a worker

Workers have responsibilities too. OSHA's standards are written for employers, and OSHA does not cite employees, but section 5(b) of the Act requires workers to comply with the standards and rules that apply to their own conduct, and your employer can discipline you for breaking safety rules. In practice that means following the training you received, wearing the protective equipment required, not removing guards or guardrails, reporting hazards, injuries and near misses, and never horsing around on the site.

Safety committees and worker representatives

Federal OSHA does not require safety committees on private construction sites, but some states require them for some employers, and many contractors set them up because they work. On Kingsway Tower, Stonebridge runs a monthly site safety committee with a worker representative from each major trade. The committee walks the site, reviews incidents and near misses, and recommends fixes. Union contracts often add their own safety representatives and procedures.

For Maya, the committee is a way to raise issues that are bigger than a single hazard. When she noticed that the only route from the hoist to the washrooms on the upper floors went through an area where the masons were cutting block without dust control, she mentioned it to the worker member from her trade. The committee recommended a second route and wet cutting, and both were in place the next week.

OSHA inspections and enforcement

OSHA compliance officers inspect workplaces without advance notice. Inspections are triggered by imminent danger reports, fatalities and severe injuries, worker complaints, referrals, and targeted programs, including national and local emphasis programs on falls and trenching. During an inspection the compliance officer may walk the site, take photographs and samples, and interview workers privately. Violations lead to citations and penalties, which OSHA adjusts each year for inflation; willful and repeated violations carry the highest penalties. Employers must post citations near the place of the violation, so workers know what was found.

Reporting injuries and workers' compensation

If Maya is hurt at work, even slightly, she reports it to Dave right away and gets first aid. Employers must record work-related injuries and illnesses that need more than first aid on the OSHA 300 log, and must report a work-related fatality to OSHA within 8 hours and an in-patient hospitalization, amputation or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Workers' compensation is run by each state; Ohio is one of a few states where employers must buy coverage from a state fund, run by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. Workers' compensation pays for medical care and part of lost wages, and in exchange workers generally cannot sue their employer. Early reporting gets the worker the right care, creates a record if a minor injury turns out to be serious, and helps the site fix the cause.

Some workers hide injuries because they are worried about their jobs, about being seen as careless, or about spoiling the site's safety record. A good contractor makes it clear that reporting is expected and never punished. A sprained wrist that is reported today is a minor first aid case; the same wrist hidden for a week and then reported may be a claim that is hard to prove, and the loose stair nosing that caused it is still waiting for the next person.

Questions every new worker can ask

Using your rights starts with simple questions. A new worker does not need to quote the law; asking the right questions on the first day tells you most of what you need to know about how seriously a contractor takes safety, and it shows your supervisor that you care about doing the job properly.

Maya asked Dave all six on her first morning. He answered most of them on the spot and walked her to the first aid station and the muster point himself. When she asked about the committee, he pointed her to the worker member from Northbridge, a second-year apprentice named Priya, who later became the person Maya went to with questions she felt awkward asking her foreman.