Employer Responsibilities

Employers have a responsibility to provide workers with a place of employment that is free from recognized hazards. Therefore, employers are responsible for providing a safe work environment and training workers on the hazards of the job and safety measures to use, such as engineering controls and safe work practices, that will protect workers' safety and health.

The employer is required to do the following:

• Provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards, and comply with standards, rules, and regulations issued under the OSH Act.
• Examine workplace conditions to make sure they conform to applicable OSHA standards, including inspecting walking working surfaces regularly; and correcting, repairing, or guarding against hazardous conditions.
• Make sure employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.
• Use color codes, posters, labels, or signs to warn employees of potential hazards.
• Establish or update operating procedures and communicate them so that employees follow safety and health requirements.
• Train and re-train workers who use personal fall protection, and who work in other specified high-hazard situations, regarding fall and equipment hazards, including fall protection systems.
• Provide safety training in a language and vocabulary workers can understand.
• Develop and implement a fall protection plan.

To learn more about Walking Working Surfaces visit our Walking Working Surfaces & Personal Fall Protection Systems Online Training web page.