5.4 Workplace Health, Safety & Security (OSHA)

The OSH Act and OSHA's Core Duties

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) of 1970 created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) within the DOL. Its central mandate is the General Duty Clause, Section 5(a)(1), which requires every covered employer to furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm, even when no specific OSHA standard addresses the hazard. Employees, in turn, have a duty to comply with safety rules.

Recordkeeping and Reporting

Employers with more than 10 employees (outside certain low-hazard industries) must maintain injury and illness records:

Reporting deadlines are a classic aPHR trap, memorize them:

• Fatality: report within 8 hours.
• Inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye: report within 24 hours.

OSHA conducts inspections (often unannounced) and can issue citations and penalties. Inspection priorities run, roughly, from imminent danger to fatalities/catastrophes, then complaints/referrals, then programmed inspections. Retaliating against an employee for reporting a hazard or filing an OSHA complaint is prohibited under Section 11(c).

Employee Rights and State Plans

Under the OSH Act, employees have the right to request an inspection, to receive information and training on hazards, to review the OSHA 300 log, and to be free from retaliation for exercising these rights. Roughly half the states run their own OSHA-approved state plans that must be at least as effective as the federal program and may set stricter standards; HR in those states (for example, California's Cal/OSHA) must follow the state rule.

Penalties for violations are tiered, from other-than-serious and serious up to willful and repeat violations, with the largest fines reserved for willful violations that cause death. The aPHR will not ask exact dollar amounts, but it expects you to know that willful and repeat violations carry the steepest penalties and that the employer, not the employee, bears primary responsibility for a safe workplace.

Hazard Communication, Programs, Security, and Workers' Comp

Hazard Communication (HazCom)

The Hazard Communication Standard (HazCom, 29 CFR 1910.1200), aligned with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS), gives workers the 'right to know' about chemical hazards. Required elements:

• Safety Data Sheets (SDS), the 16-section successor to the old MSDS, kept accessible to employees.
• Container labeling with GHS pictograms, signal words, and hazard statements.
• Employee training on chemicals they may be exposed to.
• A written hazard communication program.

Safety Programs and PPE

Effective programs use the hierarchy of controls: elimination, substitution, engineering controls, administrative controls, then personal protective equipment (PPE) as the last line of defense. Employers must provide most required PPE. Ergonomics programs reduce musculoskeletal disorders.

Security and Business Continuity

HR helps plan for emergencies with an Emergency Action Plan (EAP), evacuation routes, and drills. A business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery ensure operations can resume after a disruption; workplace violence prevention and access controls round out security.

Workers' Compensation

Workers' compensation is a state-mandated, no-fault insurance system: an employee injured on the job receives medical care and partial wage replacement regardless of fault, and in exchange generally gives up the right to sue the employer (the 'compensation bargain'). It is administered at the state level, not by OSHA, a distinction the aPHR tests. Benefits typically include medical treatment, temporary/permanent disability payments, and survivor benefits.

Wellness, Substance Abuse, and Return-to-Work

HR programs that reduce risk also appear on the exam. Wellness programs (fitness, screenings, EAPs) lower long-term health costs but must comply with the ADA and GINA when they collect health data. An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers confidential counseling for personal, financial, or substance-abuse issues. Drug-free workplace policies, and for certain DOT-regulated roles, mandatory testing, manage substance-abuse risk; testing must follow consistent, documented procedures.

After an injury, a return-to-work (RTW) or light-duty program brings employees back safely and controls workers'-comp costs, but accommodations during recovery may also implicate the ADA. The recurring theme: safety and risk programs intersect with the anti-discrimination and privacy laws from Section 5.2, so they cannot be administered in isolation.

Risk Management Framework and Safety Committees

The aPHR frames safety as part of broader risk management, the systematic process of identifying, assessing, and controlling threats to the organization's people, property, and reputation. The standard sequence is identify the hazard, assess its likelihood and severity, control it (using the hierarchy of controls), and monitor the results. Organizations transfer some risk through insurance (including workers' compensation and liability coverage) and retain other risk deliberately.

Many employers form a joint safety committee of management and employees that conducts inspections, reviews incident reports, and recommends improvements; in several states such committees are legally encouraged or required. HR's role spans training new hires on safety procedures, maintaining the OSHA logs, coordinating drills, and tracking lagging indicators like the incident rate (number of recordable cases standardized per 100 full-time workers per year).

On the exam, recognize that a strong safety culture, where reporting hazards is encouraged rather than punished, is the most effective long-term control, and that the employer carries the primary legal duty to provide and maintain it.