Every worker in the United States has a federally protected right to a safe workplace. But knowing that right exists is different from knowing how to use it — specifically, which resources are available inside a workplace that employees can actually access, consult, and rely on when they have safety concerns, need health information, or face a hazard they are not sure how to handle.
The answer covers a broader range than most workers realize. From physical postings and equipment on the workroom floor to reporting systems, medical personnel, and safety representatives, the following are the core safety and health resources available within the workplace itself.
The OSHA Job Safety and Health Poster
The most immediately accessible safety resource in any covered workplace is the OSHA Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law poster. Federal law requires employers to post this in a conspicuous location accessible to all employees — typically a break room, main entrance, or common area where workers regularly gather.
This poster is not decorative. It summarizes the rights every worker has under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970: the right to a safe workplace free from known hazards, the right to receive safety training in a language you understand, the right to review the workplace’s injury and illness records, and the right to report a safety concern or file a complaint with OSHA without fear of retaliation. The poster also lists the OSHA contact number workers can call if they have concerns.
Any worker who has not read this poster should find it and read it. It is the starting point for understanding what the law guarantees and how to access every other resource described in this article.
Safety Data Sheets (SDS)
Any workplace that uses hazardous chemicals — which includes an enormous range of workplaces, from hospitals and laboratories to warehouses, factories, construction sites, auto repair shops, and commercial kitchens — is required by OSHA’s Hazard Communication Standard to maintain Safety Data Sheets for every hazardous substance present.
A Safety Data Sheet is a standardized document that contains specific information about a chemical: its identity and physical properties, the health hazards it poses, the exposure limits set by OSHA and other agencies, protective measures including required personal protective equipment, first aid procedures if exposure occurs, safe handling and storage requirements, and emergency response procedures.
Employers are required to keep SDS accessible to workers at all times during the workshift, either in physical binders in the work area or through electronic systems with a backup plan for power outages. If you work with chemicals, knowing where the SDS for each substance is located is a basic safety literacy skill. If your employer has not told you where they are, you have the right to ask and the right to access them.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Personal protective equipment is the physical layer of protection between a worker and the hazards their job exposes them to. It is both a resource workers use and a legal obligation employers carry — OSHA requires employers to provide appropriate PPE when engineering and administrative controls alone cannot adequately protect workers from identified hazards.
The range of PPE is broad: hard hats for head protection from falling objects; safety glasses and face shields for eye and face protection; hearing protection including earplugs and earmuffs in high-noise environments; respirators for airborne chemical, biological, or particulate hazards; gloves of various materials for hand protection from chemical, thermal, or mechanical hazards; steel-toed boots for foot protection; high-visibility vests in traffic or vehicle environments; fall protection harnesses when working at height.
Effective January 13, 2025, OSHA updated its PPE standards for construction to require that equipment fit workers appropriately based on individual body size and shape — a change that addresses longstanding issues with poorly fitting equipment, particularly for women in construction, that reduced protection in practice even when technically present.
Knowing what PPE is required for your specific tasks, how to use it correctly, and when it needs inspection or replacement is one of the most direct ways a worker protects their own health and safety.
The OSHA 300 Log and Injury and Illness Records
Employers with more than 10 employees in most industries are required to keep an OSHA Form 300 Log — a running record of all work-related injuries and illnesses that meet specific recordability criteria. They are also required to post the OSHA Form 300A Summary — a yearly aggregate of injury and illness data — in a visible location from February 1 through April 30 each year.
Workers and their representatives have the right to review the full OSHA Form 300 Log at their workplace. This record is a direct window into the safety history of the workplace — what kinds of injuries have occurred, how frequently, in what departments or areas, and whether injury rates are improving or worsening over time.
Accessing and understanding injury and illness records is a meaningful way for workers to assess the actual safety performance of their employer, identify patterns in where hazards are concentrated, and hold employers accountable for progress. If the log shows a high rate of a specific injury type recurring in the same location or job function, that pattern is actionable information.
The Safety Officer or Safety Manager
Most workplaces of meaningful size have a designated safety officer, safety manager, or Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) coordinator — a person whose primary professional responsibility is managing workplace safety and health compliance. In smaller workplaces, this role may be combined with another function, but the responsibility still exists.
The safety officer is the internal resource a worker can approach with safety concerns, questions about hazardous materials, reports of near-misses, requests for equipment maintenance, or reports of an unsafe condition. They are responsible for conducting workplace hazard assessments, developing and updating safety programs and procedures, coordinating safety training, investigating incidents, and ensuring the workplace meets applicable OSHA standards.
Approaching the safety officer about a genuine concern is protected activity under federal law. Employers cannot legally retaliate against workers who report safety issues in good faith. A worker who feels their concern is not being adequately addressed by the safety officer can escalate to OSHA directly.
Safety Committees and Worker Representatives
Many workplaces have formal safety committees or joint labor-management safety and health committees that include worker representatives. These bodies are the institutional channel through which employees participate in identifying hazards, reviewing injury data, evaluating corrective actions, and influencing workplace safety policy.
Worker participation in safety and health management is not just a nicety — OSHA’s Recommended Practices for Safety and Health Programs explicitly identifies worker participation as one of the core elements of an effective safety program, alongside management leadership and systematic hazard identification and control. Workers have first-hand knowledge of the hazards in their specific tasks and work areas that no manager or safety professional can fully replicate.
In unionized workplaces, the union contract often specifies formal rights for worker safety representatives including the ability to accompany OSHA inspectors during workplace walkthroughs — a right that gives worker representatives direct access to the regulatory inspection process.
First Aid Resources: Kits, AEDs, and Medical Personnel
OSHA standards require employers to ensure that adequate first aid resources are accessible in the workplace. At minimum, this means a first aid kit stocked with supplies appropriate to the hazards of the specific workplace, accessible to workers in the area where injuries are most likely to occur.
In workplaces where the risk of cardiac arrest is elevated — or simply in larger workplaces with a significant workforce — Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are increasingly standard. An AED is a portable device that analyzes heart rhythm and can deliver an electrical shock to restore normal rhythm in ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia. Knowing where the nearest AED is located and having basic familiarity with how to use it — most devices provide clear audio guidance — can be the difference between life and death in a cardiac emergency, given that survival rates decline by roughly 10 percent for every minute defibrillation is delayed.
Some larger workplaces — particularly manufacturing facilities, hospitals, large corporate campuses, and warehouses — maintain on-site medical clinics or occupational health nurses who can provide immediate care for workplace injuries and illnesses, health screenings, drug testing, and coordination of workers’ compensation cases. On-site clinical resources reduce the need for unnecessary emergency room visits while ensuring appropriate care for workplace injuries.
Safety Training Programs and Records
Employers are required to provide safety training that covers the specific hazards workers are exposed to in their roles, and that training must be delivered in a language and vocabulary the worker can understand. Training requirements vary by industry and job function — some are mandated by specific OSHA standards, others reflect industry best practices.
Workers have the right to request their training records and to understand what training they are required to receive for their specific role. Knowing what training has been completed — and identifying any that should have been provided but has not — is a meaningful worker resource.
Training areas commonly required across industries include hazard communication and SDS interpretation, emergency action and evacuation procedures, fire safety and extinguisher use, lockout/tagout procedures for energy control during equipment maintenance, bloodborne pathogen precautions in healthcare and any workplace with potential blood exposure, fall protection in construction and any elevated work environment, forklift and powered industrial truck operation, and hearing conservation in high-noise environments.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
Employee Assistance Programs are employer-provided resources that offer confidential counseling, referrals, and support services for personal and work-related problems — including mental health concerns, substance use, financial stress, domestic situations, and other issues that affect a worker’s ability to function safely and effectively on the job.
EAPs are increasingly recognized as a workplace safety and health resource rather than simply a benefits offering, because the relationship between mental health and workplace safety is direct and well-documented. Impaired judgment, reduced concentration, and elevated distraction from unmanaged psychological stress or mental health conditions are genuine occupational hazard factors. A worker who is struggling with depression, anxiety, substance dependence, or acute personal crisis is at meaningfully elevated risk of a workplace accident.
The access point for an EAP is confidential — use of the program is not reported to an employer. Workers can typically access it through their health benefits information, HR department, or by calling the EAP number listed on their benefits card.
Ergonomic Assessments and Workstation Resources
Musculoskeletal disorders — injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, and nerves from repeated strain, awkward posture, or overexertion — are the leading category of occupational injury in the United States. They account for a significant proportion of workers’ compensation claims, lost workdays, and chronic occupational disability across industries from construction and manufacturing to office work and healthcare.
Many employers provide ergonomic resources including workstation assessments, adjustable equipment, anti-fatigue mats, lifting assists, and training on body mechanics and safe lifting techniques. OSHA’s general industry guidelines on ergonomics, while not a formal standard, are recognized as authoritative guidance, and many state-plan OSHA programs have more specific ergonomic requirements.
Workers who experience early signs of musculoskeletal strain — recurring pain, stiffness, numbness, or tingling associated with specific work tasks — should report these symptoms early. Early intervention with ergonomic modification is far more effective than waiting until a full repetitive strain injury develops.
Emergency Action Plans and Evacuation Procedures
OSHA requires most workplaces to have a written Emergency Action Plan that covers procedures for responding to fires, chemical releases, severe weather, active threats, and other emergencies that may require evacuation or shelter-in-place. Employers must communicate this plan to workers and train them on what to do in each scenario.
Knowing the evacuation routes from your specific work area, the location of the nearest emergency exits, the designated assembly points outside the building, the names and locations of emergency coordinators, and the procedures for accounting for all workers after an evacuation are basic workplace safety resources every employee should be familiar with before an emergency occurs rather than during one.
Fire extinguisher locations, emergency eyewash stations in chemical work areas, emergency shower stations where skin exposure to hazardous substances is possible, and clearly marked emergency shutoff locations for gas, electrical, and process systems are physical emergency resources that workers in relevant environments should know how to locate and use.
OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program
While not strictly an internal workplace resource, OSHA’s On-Site Consultation Program deserves mention because it is free, confidential, and designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. Under this program, OSHA-trained safety consultants visit workplaces at the employer’s request, identify hazards, suggest corrections, and help develop or improve safety programs — without citations or penalties for issues identified during the consultation.
Workers in smaller workplaces that may lack dedicated safety staff benefit indirectly from this program, and being aware of its existence means workers can encourage their employers to use it as a no-cost resource for improving workplace safety conditions.
For workers who want to understand their full range of rights and the complete scope of workplace safety resources available to them, OSHA’s official worker rights page at osha.gov/workers is the most authoritative and current reference.
A Summary of Workplace Safety and Health Resources
| Resource | Where to Find It | What It Does For You |
|---|---|---|
| OSHA Job Safety and Health Poster | Break room, main entrance, or common area | Lists your rights and OSHA contact information |
| Safety Data Sheets (SDS) | Work area binders or electronic systems | Chemical hazard information and first aid procedures |
| Personal Protective Equipment | Assigned by supervisor or from safety supply area | Physical protection from identified workplace hazards |
| OSHA 300 Log / 300A Summary | Posted February 1 to April 30; available on request | Workplace injury and illness history |
| Safety Officer / EHS Coordinator | HR or management directory | Report hazards, ask safety questions, receive guidance |
| Safety Committee | Through union rep or management | Participate in hazard identification and correction |
| First Aid Kit / AED | Posted locations throughout the facility | Immediate response to injury or cardiac emergency |
| Safety Training Records | HR or training department | Confirm what training you have received and what is required |
| Employee Assistance Program (EAP) | Benefits card, HR, or employee handbook | Confidential counseling and referrals for personal and mental health concerns |
| Emergency Action Plan | Posted or provided during onboarding | Evacuation routes, assembly points, emergency procedures |
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do if my employer does not have safety resources available?
Federal law requires employers covered by the OSH Act to provide specific safety resources. If your employer is not meeting these requirements — such as not posting the OSHA poster, not maintaining SDS for hazardous chemicals, or not providing required PPE — you can file a confidential complaint with OSHA by calling 1-800-321-OSHA or visiting osha.gov. OSHA will investigate the complaint and your identity can be kept confidential from your employer.
Can I be fired for using workplace safety resources or reporting a concern?
No. Federal law explicitly prohibits retaliation against workers for exercising their safety rights — including filing an OSHA complaint, reporting a workplace hazard to a supervisor, participating in a safety committee, or refusing to perform work they reasonably believe poses imminent danger. If you believe you have been retaliated against, you can file a whistleblower complaint with OSHA within 30 days of the retaliatory action.
Who is covered by OSHA?
OSHA covers most private sector employers and their workers in all 50 states. Those not covered include self-employed workers, immediate family members of farm employers, and workers whose hazards are regulated by a different federal agency. Federal government employees are covered under separate OSHA provisions. Most state and local government workers are covered by state-plan OSHA programs.
What is the difference between a safety resource and a safety regulation?
A safety regulation is a rule that employers and workers must follow — for example, wearing a hard hat on a construction site. A safety resource is a tool, program, person, document, or system that supports safe behavior and provides information or protection. The two often overlap — SDS are both a regulatory requirement and a resource workers actively use. This article focuses on the resources themselves rather than the regulatory framework that requires them to exist.