OSHA Compliance Checklist
Welcome to our OSHA Compliance Checklist, a valuable resource designed to help organizations ensure compliance with the regulations and standards set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). OSHA plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the health and safety of workers across various industries. This checklist will guide you through the essential steps and considerations for maintaining OSHA compliance in your workplace.
Due to the wide-ranging scope of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, this article focuses on the standards of the Act applicable to general industry with an emphasis on the healthcare industry. For this reason, our OSHA compliance checklist omits some standards that may not relate directly to medical facilities and dental surgeries.
In this article
- What is the Occupational Safety and Health Act?
- Who OSHA Does Not Cover
- Where the Occupational Safety and Health Act Applies
- Requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
- Specific Standards for Healthcare Organizations to be Aware Of
- Workers´ Rights Under the OSH Act
- Enforcement of OSHA Compliance
- OSHA Compliance Checklist
- Examples of OSHA Violations
- OSHA Fines
- OSHA Requirements for Employers in 2023
- OSHA Compliance Checklist FAQs
What is the Occupational Safety and Health Act?
The Occupational Safety and Health Act, commonly known as the OSH Act or OSHA (29 U.S.C. §§ 651 to 678) was signed into law on December 29, 1970, by President Nixon with the aim of improving workplace safety and health in the private sector and in federal government.
The OSH Act requires employers to provide a working environment free from recognized hazards – or – if the hazards cannot be eliminated, measures must be implemented to mitigate the risk of death, injury, or illness. The Act also increases workers´ rights and empowers the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take enforcement action against non-compliant employers.
Purpose and Goals
The OSH Act was created to ensure that every working person in the United States has safe and healthful working conditions. Its main goals include preventing workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities, as well as improving overall workplace safety and health.
Scope
The OSH Act covers most private sector employers and employees in the United States. It does not apply to self-employed individuals, immediate family members of farm employers, or workplaces regulated by other federal agencies, such as mining and nuclear energy facilities.
Enforcement
OSHA has the authority to issue citations and penalties for violations of safety and health standards. Penalties can vary depending on the severity of the violation and the potential harm to employees.
Training and Outreach
OSHA provides training and educational resources to help employers and employees understand and comply with safety and health standards.
Who OSHA Does Not Cover
The Occupational Safety and Health Act protects the safety and health of all workers in the U.S. except self-employed workers, family members of farm employees, and employees of businesses and organizations regulated by another federal agency – for example, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the Department of Energy, or the Coast Guard.
The exemption for self-employed workers includes sole-proprietors and independent contractors and subcontractors – unless they operate a business in which at least one other person is employed. Also exempted from OSHA are interns and volunteers working in a sole-proprietor business – unless they receive payment (including indirect payment) for their services.
Businesses in some industries – and those with fewer than ten employees – are partially exempt from OSHA compliance inasmuch as they are not required to maintain OSHA injury and illnesses records (except those relating to a fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye). The list of industries in which partial exemption applies can be found here.
Where the Occupational Safety and Health Act Applies
Although a federal law, the OSH Act can be pre-empted by another federal law or by state laws that are equally or more effective at protecting employees against work-related deaths, injuries, and illnesses. There are currently twenty-two locations in which “State Plans” pre-empt the OSH Act, plus a further six locations in which State Plans cover public employees only. In these six locations, the federal OSH Act applies to all private businesses not regulated by another federal agency. Businesses covered by State Plans will need to compile a state-specific OSHA compliance checklist.
| How OSHA Applies | States |
|---|---|
| State Plan Covering Private, State, Local Government | Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming, |
| State Plan Covering State/Local Government Only | Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and the U.S. Virgin Islands |
| Federal OSHA States | Alabama, American Samoa, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Northern Mariana Islands, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin |
Requirements of the Occupational Safety and Health Act
Since the passage of the OSH Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has developed thousands of standards that cover – and apply to – most types of working environment. Due to there being unique risks and hazards in the agriculture, construction, and maritime industries, businesses in these industries have separate sets of standards. All other businesses covered by the OSH Act are required to comply with the standards for general industry where applicable.
For businesses in the general industry category, although there is no “one-size-fits-all” OSHA compliance checklist, the standards developed as a consequence of the OSHA Act require employers to:
- Identify safety and health hazards and reduce risk to a low and acceptable level
- Inform employees about safety and health risks in the workplace
- Notify employees of OSHA citations, injury, and illness data
- Provide training to employees to allow them to work safely and avoid hazards
- Provide personal protective equipment to workers (when necessary) at no cost
- Maintain records of accidents and work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths
- Notify OSHA of any workplace fatality, hospitalization, or serious workplace injury
- Ensure employees do not face retaliation or discrimination for exercising their rights under the OSH Act.
Since the passage of the OSH Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has developed thousands of standards that cover – and apply to – most types of working environment. Due to there being unique risks and hazards in the agriculture, construction, and maritime industries, businesses in these industries have separate sets of standards. All other businesses covered by the OSH Act are required to comply with the standards for general industry where applicable.
For businesses in the general industry category, although there is no “one-size-fits-all” OSHA compliance checklist, the standards developed as a consequence of the OSHA Act require employers to:
Specific Standards for Healthcare Organizations to be Aware Of
While many general industry standards are by their nature “general” (for example, providing handrails for stairways and hand washing facilities in bathrooms), there are also standards that organizations in the healthcare industry need to be particularly aware of as these may have to be complied with alongside other industry regulations such as the physical safeguards of the HIPAA Security Rule and CMS´ Emergency Preparedness Rule. These include:
Worker’s Rights Under the OSH Act
- The Hazard Communication Standard – Inform employees about hazardous substances, how to protect against exposure, and what to do if exposed.
- The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (as amended by the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act) – Minimize the risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens and maintain a Sharps Injury Log.
- Notify employees of OSHA citations, injury, and illness data
- Provide training to employees to allow them to work safely and avoid hazards
- Provide personal protective equipment to workers (when necessary) at no cost
- Maintain records of accidents and work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths
- Notify OSHA of any workplace fatality, hospitalization, or serious workplace injury
- Ensure employees do not face retaliation or discrimination for exercising their rights under the OSH Act.
The OSH Act gives workers certain rights in addition to the right to a safe and healthy working environment, and employers must allow workers to exercise their rights without retaliation or discrimination. Possibly the most important right under the OSH Act is the Right to Information which is usually interpreted as the right to know what hazards are present in the workplace and how workers should protect themselves. In more detail, workers´ rights include:
- The right to receive information and training about hazards, methods to prevent harm, and the OSHA standards that apply to the workplace. The training must be done in a language and vocabulary workers can understand.
- The right to review records of work-related injuries and illnesses that occur in the workplace, receive copies of the results from tests and monitoring done to find and measure hazards in the workplace, and get copies of workplace medical records.
- File a confidential complaint with OSHA to have their workplace inspected, participate in an OSHA inspection, speak in private with the inspector, and file a complaint with OSHA if they have been retaliated against as the result of requesting an inspection
It is also important for organizations in the healthcare industry to inform members of the workforce of their rights in relation to HIPAA or other federal and state laws that provide stronger privacy protections or more rights than the OSH Act. This includes “whistle blower” complaints to HHS´ Office for Civil Rights, OSHA, or any other state or federal agency.
Enforcement of OSHA Compliance
The OSH Act is regulated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration which is a division of the United States Department of Labor (DOL). The Administration has the authority to impose financial penalties for non-compliance with any OSH Act standards and has the jurisdiction to fine any organization for breaches of whistle blower provisions in a further twenty federal statutes.
Minimum and maximum penalties are applied according to the gravity of each violation across five penalty tiers. The minimum and maximum OSHA civil penalties are increased annually in line with inflation. The table below has been updated to reflect increases in penalties announced in January 2023.
