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Safety in the workplace is an issue so critical to America’s workforce that the federal government established an agency for the sole purpose of maintaining workplace safety. This agency is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). One way that OSHA works to achieve a high level of safety on the job is with the distribution of posters and bulletins designed to keep the awareness of safety issues a top priority.

If you’re an employer, have you posted your Vermont OSHA 300 form yet? The Vermont OSHA 300 form is one tool OSHA has created with accident prevention in mind. The 2007 OSHA 300A form is a review log citing all accidents, illness, and fatalities that occurred on a particular jobsite in 2006. The OSHA 300 is required by law to be prominently posted from February 1 through April 30, 2007, in an area frequented by all employees. Failure to post this form is a violation of OSHA standards and an employer may face fines for noncompliance.

Other required postings are the OSHA Safety Communication, OSHA – It’s the Law, and the Job Safety and Health Protection posters. These posters are updated each year and the 2007 revised posters should now be displayed in every workplace in America.

OSHA was chartered as the nation’s on-the-job safety monitor but 24 states have now adapted their own safety programs. These state agencies must meet OSHA standards, including providing employers with posters similar to those issued by OSHA. Employers are required to display the state’s posters instead of the OSHA posters but displaying posters from both the state and federal OSHA agencies is never a bad idea.

OSHA and similarly sanctioned state agencies were founded with the mission of ensuring the safety and health of every employee by setting and enforcing standards of safety and sanitation; providing safety-related training, outreach, and education programs; establishing partnerships to encourage free communications on the job; and providing continuous improvement to the safety of the nation’s workforce.

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