The United States Court of Appeals recently overturned an Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) decision regarding the OSHA Multi-Employer Citation Policy. This new ruling reaffirms the responsibility of general contractors in the safety of not only their own employees, but ALL employees at a workplace.

The OSH Act of 1970 actually created two administrative divisions: the Secretary and the OSHRC. The Secretary creates and enforces regulations, which we all know and love as OSHA. The OSHRC is an independent Federal agency that serves as the court system to adjudicate disputes between employers, employees and the Secretary arising from contested work place safety inspections. The purpose of these two divisions is to ensure that parties to agency cases receive impartial hearings.

OSHA's directive CPL 02-00-124 Multi-Employer Citation Policy

According to the original multi-employer worksite policy, circa 1971, OSHA has the authority to cite employers who exposed their own employees to hazardous conditions or created a hazardous condition endangering their own employees or those of other employers on-site. However, after several contests to this policy, the OSHRC determined that it violated regulation 29 C. F. R. 1910.12(a) construction work standards. The OSHRC then ruled that an employer is only responsible for the safety and health of only those employees who work for the employer.

After petition by the Secretary, the United States Court of Appeals reviewed the case and determined that OSHRC skewed its judgment in concluding that the multi-employer worksite policy conflicted with 1910.12(a) and vacated its legal findings. The court deferred to the Secretary's interpretation of the standard and determined that 1910.12(a) does not contradict the multi-employer citation policy. Therefore, the policy will stand and the responsibility of a safe worksite is, in fact, on the general contractors.