Things Employers Need to do Under OSHA
                     Things Employers Need to do Under OSHA
David Barton
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OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is a 
Federal agency under the US Department of Labor that provides for industry 
safeguards and guidelines to ensure safety to the employee by creating a safe 
work environment.
Private, Federal, State and local government agencies come under the purview of 
OSHA and the onus lies on the employer to ensure that the regulations are carried 
out. OSHA standards demand strict compliance and employers need to display all 
the relevant posters at workplace at a place where the employees have access to 
them.
Employer duties as per OSHA
Though OSHA provides strict and necessary guidelines, the responsibility of 
ensuring them at workplace lies with the employer. OSHA laws are very 
comprehensive and cover different industries in different ways as the risks 
associated with employee life and health differ across industries. Employers 
should determine the OSHA safeguards that cover their nature of work and 
workplace. OSHA measures relate to every type of industry. These are discussed 
here briefly.
 Employee training for safety: It is the responsibility of the employer to 
provide the necessary training regarding the safety practices at work and the 
use of safety equipment present at workplace. The training should be in the 
form that can be understood by the employee and if necessary, training has to 
be provided in his native language.
 Record keeping and reporting accidents: The employers are expected to 
keep strict record of the injuries and illness of the employees and display them 
at a place where employees can see them. Any major accident leading to death 
or hospitalization of three or more employees has to be communicated within 
eight hours of its occurrence.
 Follow hazard communication standards: Proper standards and codes should 
be maintained to identify hazardous chemicals at the workplace and during 
transit. They should be labeled stating that the material is hazardous and the 
components must be displayed on the label. Employees should be trained to 
identify the threat and the way to act in case of fatalities.
 Emergency action plan, exit routes and fire safety: Employers must ensure 
that they have an emergency action plan. This plan kicks into action in case of 
emergency like fire or any other such typical situation. Regular drills must be 
conducted by the employer. When coming to the fire safety, employer should 
have a fore prevention plan at place. Portable fire extinguishers must be 
provided at work place and at least two fire exits should be there at work place. 
They should not contain any inflammable materials. The employees should be 
made aware of the exit routes to prefer in case of emergencies.
 General sanitation: General sanitation is a common measure to ensure 
personal health. The workplace should be clean and free from disease causing 
germs. Drinking water should provided and common glass for drinking water 
should be avoided. Perfect labeling should be done. Air quality should be 
checked and logs should be maintained.
 Medical and first aid: Employers must provide the first aid at workplace to 
manage little injuries at work. The first aid box should contain things as per the 
probable injuries and hazards. Employer should determine how many such kits 
he require and ensure training of the employees to use them properly.
Essence of compliance
Compliance of the safeguards and guidelines ensure that employee health and life 
is safeguarded. The practices also lead to a safer work environment. This leads to 
lesser illness and injuries and more work leading to the increase in production of 
the workforce. Happy and satisfied employees are more productive for a business 
than unsatisfied ones. It will save you from falling into legal complications 
coming because of workplace accidents or non-compliance of laws.
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