Supervisor Responsibilities under OSHA
How the law makes supervisors responsible for safety, followed through the invented Harrowgate Foods, a bakery and frozen meals plant in Gainesville, a distribution center in McDonough and a sauces plant in Athens, Georgia, after a night sanitation worker is injured on a spiral conveyor: how OSHA law works, the general duty clause and shared responsibility, the duties of employers and supervisors and what makes a supervisor competent, workers' rights to information, reporting and refusing imminent danger, OSHA inspections, citations, penalties and contests, defenses including unpreventable employee misconduct, criminal liability for willful violations, injury and illness recordkeeping under 29 CFR 1904, documentation that protects workers, and a capstone supervisor's legal toolkit.
HSE-402 12 lessons · 4 h 5 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Safety Training
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain how OSHA law works in the United States, including the OSH Act, standards, federal OSHA, state plans and the Review Commission.
- Describe the general duty clause and how responsibility for safety is shared among employers, supervisors and workers.
- Identify the main duties of employers, including safe equipment, systems of work, training, supervision and a written program.
- Explain the duties of supervisors and what makes a supervisor competent in law and in practice.
- Apply workers' rights to information, reporting and refusing imminent danger, including protection from retaliation under section 11(c).
- Explain how OSHA inspections are triggered and conducted, and the supervisor's role during one.
- Describe citations, classifications, penalties, abatement, informal settlements and contests, and how supervisors should respond.
- Build the evidence for defenses, including the four elements of unpreventable employee misconduct.
- Explain criminal liability for willful violations that cause death, false statements and related federal charges.
- Apply OSHA's injury and illness recordkeeping rule, including recordability, forms, posting, electronic submission and severe injury reporting.
- Write documentation that protects workers, using the five elements of a good record and written escalation.
- Assemble and use a supervisor's legal toolkit to turn legal duties into shift routines, responses and records.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 5 min total · final exam
- 1 How OSHA law works in the United States 22 min · quiz
- 2 The general duty clause and shared responsibility 21 min · quiz
- 3 Duties of employers 20 min · quiz
- 4 Duties of supervisors and the competent supervisor 21 min · quiz
- 5 Workers' rights: information, reporting and refusing imminent danger 21 min · quiz
- 6 OSHA inspections 20 min · quiz
- 7 Citations, penalties and contests 20 min · quiz
- 8 Defenses, including unpreventable employee misconduct 20 min · quiz
- 9 Criminal liability for willful violations 20 min · quiz
- 10 Injury and illness recordkeeping under 29 CFR 1904 19 min · quiz
- 11 Documentation that protects workers 20 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: the supervisor's legal toolkit 21 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Requirements
Recommended background. You can start any course at any time.
Description
How the law makes supervisors responsible for safety, followed through the invented Harrowgate Foods, a bakery and frozen meals plant in Gainesville, a distribution center in McDonough and a sauces plant in Athens, Georgia, after a night sanitation worker is injured on a spiral conveyor: how OSHA law works, the general duty clause and shared responsibility, the duties of employers and supervisors and what makes a supervisor competent, workers' rights to information, reporting and refusing imminent danger, OSHA inspections, citations, penalties and contests, defenses including unpreventable employee misconduct, criminal liability for willful violations, injury and illness recordkeeping under 29 CFR 1904, documentation that protects workers, and a capstone supervisor's legal toolkit.