What PR OSHA requires of an employer

Puerto Rico’s Occupational Safety and Health Act, Ley Núm. 16 of 5 August 1975, requires employers to provide their employees with working conditions free of known hazards, and creates PR OSHA to set, adopt and enforce protective standards. Employers must find and correct safety and health problems, situations or hazards. The same law protects workers who complain to their employers, to PR OSHA or to other government agencies about unsafe or unhealthy working conditions. PR OSHA also provides information, training and assistance to workers and employers alike.

These responsibilities fall on employers and business owners covered by Ley 16 of 1975. As to recordkeeping, PR OSHA specifies that the law requires “certain employers” to prepare and keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses; the page does not publish which employers are exempt or on what criteria, so that has to be confirmed with PR OSHA.

• Providing employees with a workplace free of hazards and complying with all PR OSHA safety and health standards.Verified against the official source
• Eliminating or reducing hazards first through changes in working conditions, rather than simply resorting to personal protective equipment.Verified against the official source
• Informing employees about hazards through training, labels, alarms, colour-coding systems, chemical information sheets and other methods.Verified against the official source
• Keeping accurate records of work-related injuries and illnesses.Verified against the official source
• Carrying out workplace testing, such as the air sampling required by some standards, and administering hearing exams or other medical testing the standards require.Verified against the official source
• Posting PR OSHA citations, the occupational injury and illness logs and the PR OSHA poster in the workplace where workers can see them.Verified against the official source
• Notifying PR OSHA, within eight hours of its occurrence, of any incident resulting in a death or the hospitalization of three or more employees.Verified against the official source
• Not discriminating or retaliating against any employee for exercising their rights under the law.Verified against the official source

• The recordkeeping forms for work-related injuries and illnesses, which PR OSHA publishes in its Forms and Publications section.

1. 1

   Step 1: Fix the condition before handing out equipment

   PR OSHA does not leave this to judgement. It requires employers to eliminate or reduce hazards first through changes in working conditions, rather than simply resorting to respirators, gloves, earplugs or other kinds of personal protective equipment. The agency’s own examples: switching to safer chemicals, enclosing processes to capture harmful fumes, or using ventilation systems to clean the air. Handing out masks is the cheap answer and it is precisely what PR OSHA names as insufficient on its own.

2. 2

   Step 2: Tell people what hazards they face

   You must inform employees about hazards through training, labels, alarms, colour-coding systems, chemical information sheets and other methods. And on the worker’s side, Ley 16 gives them the right to have that training given in a language they can understand.

3. 3

   Step 3: Keep the injury and illness log

   Ley Núm. 16 of 5 August 1975 requires certain employers to prepare and keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses. PR OSHA warns about that form: it contains employee health information and must be used in a way that protects the employee’s confidentiality to the greatest extent possible, while the information is used for occupational safety and health purposes. The forms are in PR OSHA’s Forms and Publications section.

4. 4

   Step 4: Run the testing the standards require

   Carry out workplace testing, such as the air sampling required by some PR OSHA standards, and administer hearing exams or other medical testing the standards require. On the worker’s side, the law gives them the right to observe testing done to find hazards and to obtain the results.

5. 5

   Step 5: Post what has to be posted

   Post PR OSHA citations, the occupational injury and illness logs and the PR OSHA poster in the workplace, where workers can see them. It is not decoration: it is how the law makes sure people know what has been cited and what has happened at that site.

6. 6

   Step 6: Eight hours if there is a death or three hospitalized

   This is the number to have written on the wall. You must notify PR OSHA within eight hours of its occurrence of any incident resulting in a death or the hospitalization of three or more employees. Eight hours from when it happens, not from when the response gets organized.

7. 7

   Step 7: Do not punish whoever complains

   You may not discriminate or retaliate against any employee for exercising their rights under the law. The Occupational Safety and Health Act protects workers who complain to their employers, to PR OSHA or to other government agencies about unsafe or unhealthy working conditions. A worker cannot be transferred, denied a raise or have their hours cut for that; and the employee has 30 days from learning of the action to file a discrimination complaint.

PR OSHA is part of the Department of Labor and Human Resources and maintains a Central Office and Area Offices, whose details it publishes in its Contact section. Its email is prosha@trabajo.pr.gov. The standards, regulations and recordkeeping forms are in the Standards and Regulations and Forms and Publications sections of its page.

• Answering a hazard by handing out masks, gloves or earplugs without changing the condition causing it.
• Letting more than eight hours pass before reporting a death or the hospitalization of three or more employees.
• Not posting the PR OSHA poster or citations where workers can see them.
• Keeping the injury log without protecting the confidentiality of the employee’s health information.
• Training in a language the worker does not understand.
• Transferring, denying a raise to, or cutting the hours of whoever complained.
• Assuming your business is exempt from the injury log without confirming it with PR OSHA.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento del Trabajo y Recursos Humanos (DTRH)

  Departamento del Trabajo

  www.trabajo.pr.gov

• PR OSHA — Recordkeeping

  PR OSHA

  www.trabajo.pr.gov