By Thomas Berry
While the requirement that an employer must post a notice outlining the employer’s responsibilities and an employee’s rights under the Occupational Safety and Health Act is not new, OSHA has updated the required posting which must be displayed by an employer in a conspicuous place where employees can see the poster in the workplace. In addition to providing an updated poster, OSHA has also prepared a version written in Korean, Nepali, Spanish, Chinese, Polish, and Portuguese.
Employers can obtain a copy of the poster from OSHA as well as downloading a copy from its web page, www.osha.gov/Publications/poster.html. In addition to advising employees of their right to a safe work place, the new OSHA poster additionally delineates the employee’s rights to protest or complain about unsafe practices without fear of retaliation. The new OSHA policy also reiterates that employers must report fatalities to OSHA, within 8 hours, and any other inpatient hospitalizations, amputations, or a loss of an eye to OSHA within 24 hours. Failure to post the require poster would permit OSHA to cite and penalize an employer.