Pittsburgh employees may be interested in some information about the Occupational Health and Safety Administration's regulations regarding workplace safety. The employer has specific responsibilities under these rules that could lead to fines and other penalties if ignored.
Avoiding unsafe working conditions is just one of the many responsibilities that an employer has under OSHA rules. In addition to taking measures to identify and remove workplace hazards, the employer must also put in place various procedures to encourage safety. They must educate their employees about these policies and take steps to warn employees about existing hazards with labels, signs and through other methods. Employees must be trained in a manner that they understand in a language that they are familiar with.
The employer is also responsible for reporting workplace accidents to OSHA. The time allowed for reporting depends on the seriousness of the injury, with an eight hour reporting requirement for fatalities and 24 hours for certain other injuries. Records of these and other injuries, along with employee illnesses, must be kept and made available to employees, along with other workplace safety records. If the employer is cited for violations of OSHA standards, they must post these violations near the area where the violation occurred. They must leave the citation posted for the longer of either a period of three days or until the issue is corrected. These violations must be corrected by the employer before OSHA's deadline, given at the time of the citation.
Understanding an employer's responsibilities can be important in cases where Workplace Accidents cause serious injuries to an employee. If unsafe working conditions were to blame, the employee may be eligible for workers' compensation and may potentially be able to take further legal action against their employer.
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