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16.10: Introduction to Workplace Safety and Health

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    What you’ll learn to do: Describe the legal obligations for workplace safety and health

    Workplace safety isn’t just a business best practice, it is, as OSHA posters declare, the law. Passed by Congress in 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), whose mission is “to assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women by setting and enforcing standards and by providing training, outreach, education and assistance.”[1] In this section, we’ll discuss employer requirements and employee rights under the OSH Act and associated state plans.

    Photograph of several wire-frame lockers containing hard hats and safety equipment.

    1. "Occupational Safety and Health Act." United States Department of Labor. Accessed August 20, 2019. ↵

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    This page titled 16.10: Introduction to Workplace Safety and Health is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Nina Burokas via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.