Workplace Safety and Compliance
Workplace safety is both a legal obligation and a moral responsibility for every employer. The Workplace domain of the SHRM exam tests your understanding of OSHA requirements, workplace violence prevention strategies, workers' compensation, and the broader risk management framework that HR uses to create safe, compliant work environments.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act)
The OSH Act of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and established the legal framework for workplace safety in the United States. The law imposes a general duty on employers to provide a workplace "free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm" to employees. Key provisions include:
- General Duty Clause: Section 5(a)(1) requires employers to address serious recognized hazards even when no specific OSHA standard applies.
- Specific standards: OSHA issues detailed safety and health standards for specific hazards, including hazard communication (chemical safety), lockout/tagout (energy control), personal protective equipment, fall protection, and permissible exposure limits for toxic substances.
- Recordkeeping: Employers with 11 or more employees must maintain OSHA Form 300 (Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses), Form 300A (Summary), and Form 301 (Individual Incident Report). Certain industries are exempt from routine recordkeeping. The Form 300A must be posted in the workplace from February 1 through April 30 each year.
- Reporting requirements: Employers must report work-related fatalities within 8 hours and inpatient hospitalizations, amputations, or losses of an eye within 24 hours.
OSHA Inspections
OSHA conducts workplace inspections through a priority system:
- Imminent danger: Situations where death or serious physical harm could occur immediately.
- Fatalities and catastrophes: Incidents resulting in a death or hospitalization of three or more employees.
- Employee complaints: Formal complaints filed by employees or their representatives alleging unsafe conditions.
- Referrals: Notifications from other agencies, organizations, or media reports.
- Planned inspections: Targeted inspections of high-hazard industries and programmed site visits.
- Follow-up inspections: Verification that previously cited violations have been corrected.
Employers have the right to require an OSHA inspector to obtain a warrant before entering the workplace (Marshall v. Barlow's Inc., 1978). Employees have the right to accompany the inspector during the walkaround portion of the inspection.
OSHA Citations and Penalties
OSHA issues citations with monetary penalties based on the severity of the violation:
- Other-than-serious: Violations with a direct relationship to safety and health but unlikely to cause death or serious physical harm.
- Serious: Violations where there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and the employer knew or should have known about the hazard.
- Willful: Violations committed with intentional disregard for the law or plain indifference to employee safety. These carry the highest penalties.
- Repeat: Violations of the same or substantially similar standard within the past five years.
Workplace Violence Prevention
Workplace violence ranges from verbal threats and intimidation to physical assaults and homicide. OSHA categorizes workplace violence into four types:
- Type 1 (Criminal intent): The perpetrator has no legitimate relationship to the workplace, such as a robbery.
- Type 2 (Customer/client): Violence from customers, patients, students, or other individuals served by the organization.
- Type 3 (Worker-on-worker): Violence between current or former employees.
- Type 4 (Personal relationship): Violence from someone with a personal relationship with an employee, such as a domestic partner.
HR's role in violence prevention includes developing and communicating a zero-tolerance policy, training employees and managers to recognize warning signs, establishing threat assessment teams, creating reporting procedures, implementing physical security measures, and coordinating with law enforcement when necessary.
Workers' Compensation
Workers' compensation is a state-mandated, no-fault insurance system that provides benefits to employees who suffer work-related injuries or illnesses. Key features include:
- No-fault system: Employees receive benefits regardless of who caused the injury, and in exchange, they generally waive the right to sue the employer for negligence (the "exclusive remedy" doctrine).
- Benefits provided: Medical expenses, temporary and permanent disability payments, rehabilitation services, and death benefits for dependents.
- HR responsibilities: Maintaining safety programs, managing claims promptly, facilitating return-to-work programs, and controlling costs through loss prevention.
Safety Programs and Culture
Effective workplace safety extends beyond OSHA compliance to building a genuine safety culture. HR contributes by partnering with safety professionals to conduct hazard assessments, developing safety training programs, investigating incidents to identify root causes (not just assign blame), tracking leading indicators (near-misses, safety observations) rather than relying solely on lagging indicators (injury rates), and ensuring that safety performance is included in management accountability and performance evaluations.
Explore the full Workplace domain guide for more on compliance and risk. Review key requirements with the Workplace Cheat Sheet and practice with Workplace mini exams. Sign up free to access all workplace safety practice questions.