Employer Categories on Worksites
On most construction worksites, more than one employer or contractor will manage some aspect of safety as a result of the responsibilities they have been assigned. It's important to know on multi-employer worksites more than one employer may be citable for a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard.
According to OSHA, there are four employer categories on a multi-employer worksite:
- Creating employer: the employer who caused a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard.
- Exposing employer: This is an employer whose own employees are exposed to the hazard.
- Correcting employer: This is an employer who is engaged in a common undertaking, on the same worksite as the exposing employer, and is responsible for correcting a hazard. This usually occurs where an employer is given the responsibility of installing and/or maintaining particular safety/health equipment or devices.
- Controlling employer: This is an employer who has general supervisory authority over the worksite, including the power to correct safety and health violations itself or require others to correct them. Control can be established by contract or, in the absence of explicit contractual provisions, by the exercise of control in practice.
It's also important to remember any one employer on a construction site may actually meet the criteria in more than one of the above categories.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
1-5. Which of the following employers on a construction worksite causes a hazardous condition that violates an OSHA standard?
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