10.1 OSHA Employer Duties and Enforcement

Who Enforces Safety on a Maryland Job Site?

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created by the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (the OSH Act). Maryland is one of the states that operates its own OSHA-approved state plan: Maryland Occupational Safety and Health (MOSH), a unit of the Maryland Department of Labor, covers most private-sector employers and all state and local government workplaces in Maryland. A state plan must be at least as effective as federal OSHA, so MOSH adopts the federal construction standards in 29 CFR Part 1926 and can add state-specific requirements. For exam purposes, when a question references an OSHA construction standard, MOSH enforces the same rule on a Maryland site.

A fundamental principle the exam tests repeatedly: the employer is responsible for compliance, and on a construction site the general contractor that controls the project carries the primary burden. It is no defense that a subcontractor's employee was the one exposed, that the GC did not own the ladder, or that the crew was told to be careful. Duties cannot be delegated away by contract.

The General Duty Clause

Section 5(a)(1) of the OSH Act, the General Duty Clause, requires every employer to furnish each employee a place of employment free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. OSHA uses it as a backstop when no specific standard addresses the hazard — classic examples include heat stress and some ergonomic hazards. To sustain a General Duty Clause citation, OSHA must show four things: a hazard existed, the hazard was recognized (by the employer or the industry), it was likely to cause death or serious physical harm, and a feasible means existed to correct it. If a specific standard covers the condition, OSHA must cite that standard instead.

The Multi-Employer Worksite Doctrine

Construction sites host many employers at once, so OSHA's multi-employer citation policy (CPL 02-00-124) recognizes four roles. More than one can apply to the same company:

• Creating employer — the one whose act created the hazard (a sub who removes a guardrail).
• Exposing employer — the one whose own employees are exposed to the hazard.
• Correcting employer — the one responsible, by contract or practice, for fixing the hazard.
• Controlling employer — the one with general supervisory authority over the worksite, including the power to correct hazards or require others to correct them. This is almost always the general contractor.

The controlling employer has a duty of reasonable care to detect and prevent violations, and can be cited even if none of its own employees were exposed. A GC that walks past an unguarded floor opening every day without acting is citable. Reasonable care is judged against factors like the scale of the project, the frequency of site inspections, and whether the GC knew or should have known of the hazard.

How OSHA Inspections Work

OSHA (and MOSH) cannot inspect every site, so inspections follow a priority order:

1. Imminent danger — hazards that could cause death or serious harm immediately.
2. Fatalities and catastrophes — including incidents employers must report.
3. Worker complaints and referrals — formal complaints from employees get high priority.
4. Programmed inspections — planned inspections targeting high-hazard industries; construction is always on this list.
5. Follow-up inspections — verifying that prior citations were abated.

An inspection typically includes an opening conference, a walkaround with employer and employee representatives, employee interviews, and a closing conference. Employers may require a warrant, but refusing entry rarely helps and can escalate the visit.

Citation Types and Penalties

These maximums are adjusted for inflation every January, so the exam's dollar figures may trail the current OSHA penalties page — focus on the relative structure: willful and repeated violations cost roughly ten times a serious one, and failure to abate accrues daily. Penalties are assessed per violation and per exposed instance, so one unguarded roof edge with six workers can generate six serious citations. Willful violations are generally not eligible for the good-faith and size reductions available for other citations, and criminal penalties are possible when a willful violation causes a worker's death.

Recordkeeping: The 300 Log

Employers with more than 10 employees must keep OSHA injury and illness records under 29 CFR Part 1904:

• OSHA Form 300 — the running Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses.
• OSHA Form 301 — the Incident Report, completed within 7 calendar days of learning of a recordable case.
• OSHA Form 300A — the annual summary, certified by a company executive and posted February 1 through April 30 of the following year.

Records must be retained for 5 years. Separately, every employer — even those exempt from routine log-keeping — must report a fatality within 8 hours and any inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours. Falsifying the log or missing a reportable event is itself citable, and deliberate falsification pushes the case toward the willful tier.