Construction Law

Employer Responsibilities Under OSHA

As an employer in the construction industry, you have an obligation to your employees to provide a safe workplace. Employers need to make it a priority to eliminate safety hazards and uphold OSHA’s safety regulations. As your St. Petersburg construction attorneys, we’ve outlined a few steps employers can take to ensure safety and compliance in their workplace.

1. Keep Employees Informed

It is an employer’s duty to alert their employees of any potential hazards. This can be accomplished with employee safety trainings, labeling dangerous tools or work zones, going over safety alarms, color coding systems, and hazardous chemical safety sheets.

2. Maintain A Safety Log

Maintaining a safety log and recording work-related injuries is one of the best methods to avoid the same injuries in the future. Safety logs should go into detail explaining the injury; where it happened, what went wrong, and how to avoid it again. Safety logs should be kept in a place where employees have access to, such as a common break room. Safety logs are also ideal to have on hand for OSHA inspections.

3. Check The Workplace for Hazards

Check the workplace prior to allowing employees to enter the site. Doing so can prevent employees from being exposed to hazards, like lead poisoning. Employers should check the indoor air quality, lead in paint, and that all equipment is setup properly.

4. Provide Employees With Health Exams

Provide health exams, like hearing, vision, or medical tests for your employees. It will help to ensure that your employees have all of their abilities before working.

5. Make All OSHA Information Available

Be sure to post OSHA posters where your employees will see them, along with any OSHA citations and injury and illness information. Citations must remain posted for whichever is longer: until the violation has been corrected or for three working days.

6. Keep OSHA Up To Date

It’s important to alert OSHA to any and all work related fatalities within 8 hours of the occurrence. Any work-related hospitalizations, amputations, and losses of an eye need to be reported within 24 hours.

7. Don’t Penalize Employees

Employers should never discriminate against or penalize a worker that uses their OSHA rights. Docking pay or terminating an employee that uses their OSHA rights may result in serious penalties.

If you would like to speak with one of our St. Petersburg construction lawyers, please contact us at 813.579.3278, or submit our contact request form.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for general educational information only. This information does not constitute legal advice, is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor should it be relied upon as legal advice for your specific factual pattern or situation.