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Businesses Subject to OSHA

Businesses Subject to OSHA

The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) applies to most businesses. The Act covers all employers and their employees throughout the United States and its territories either through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or through a state program approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. However, there are some exemptions from OSHA.

Any business with employees is likely to be covered by OSHA unless the business is in a specific category exempted from application of the Act. There is a partial exemption for businesses with ten or fewer employees in the sense that such businesses are not subject to programmed inspections if they are in certain low-hazard industries and are not subject to injury and illness reporting. The low-hazard industries include businesses such as galleries and museums, offices for real estate or securities agents or brokers, retail stores and banks, auto dealerships and gas stations, and restaurants and bars.

Otherwise, businesses or employers excluded from application of OSHA include only:

 

    • self-employed persons;

 

    • family farms without employees from outside the immediate family;

 

    • churches;

 

    • federal and state governments and their political subdivisions;

 

    • businesses with no connection such as use of telephones or the mail to a broadly defined interstate commerce; and

 

  • businesses with working conditions regulated under other federal statutes, such as mining or nuclear power companies.

 

Businesses which employ persons, as indicated by payment of wages, power to control the actions of the employee, and ability to fire the employee, are subject to OSHA. In a situation in which several businesses at one job site may share authority or control over employees, the employer considered responsible for meeting OSHA obligations is likely to be determined by which employer is considered by the employers and the employee as responsible for controlling and having the power to control the employee.

Copyright 2012 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.

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Donald W. Hudspeth
Principal Attorney

Attorney Donald W. Hudspeth has more than twenty years’ experience practicing corporate and business law. Before attending law school, Mr. Hudspeth held a stock brokers license at the age of 21 and owned his own business at the age of 23. He was a business law professor at Arizona State University, West Campus, and has conducted classes and seminars for a number of higher institutions and organizations. Mr. Hudspeth has published two books on law and is the founder of the radio programs Law on the Edge and Law Talk.

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Mark S. Hamilton
Attorney

About Attorney Mark S. Hamilton has experience handling all aspects of civil and commercial litigation in federal, state, and tribal courts at the trial and appellate levels. Practice Areas Business litigation Commercial litigation Education University Of Hawaii Wm. S. Richardson School Of Law, Juris Doctor - 2002 University Of Hawaii, Master Of Arts in Asian…

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