Your Rights as a Worker

Under the OSH Act, you have rights that protect your safety and health on the job, no matter your age, experience or immigration status.

• Construction
• General Industry

You have the right to

• A safe workplace free from serious recognized hazards.
• Training about workplace hazards and how to prevent them, in a language and vocabulary you understand.
• Required safety equipment, such as harnesses and respirators. Your employer must pay for most required PPE.
• Information about hazardous chemicals you work with (labels and Safety Data Sheets).
• Records: see the injury and illness log (OSHA 300) for your workplace, and copies of your own medical and exposure records.
• Results of tests done to find hazards, such as air monitoring and noise testing.
• File a confidential complaint with OSHA and ask for an inspection.
• Take part in an OSHA inspection and speak privately with the inspector.
• Report an injury or illness and get copies of your records.
• Be protected from retaliation for using any of these rights. See Whistleblower Protection.

Your right to refuse dangerous work

You can refuse to do a task if all of these are true:

1. You believe in good faith that there is an imminent danger of death or serious injury;
2. A reasonable person would agree there is a real danger;
3. You asked your employer to fix the hazard and they did not;
4. There isn’t enough time to get the hazard fixed through an OSHA inspection.

If you refuse, stay on the jobsite unless told to leave, tell your employer you won’t do the task until the hazard is fixed, and offer to do other safe work.

How to file a complaint with OSHA

• Online at osha.gov/workers/file-complaint
• By phone: 1-800-321-OSHA (6742)
• By mail, fax or in person at your local OSHA area office (or your state plan office)

You can ask OSHA to keep your name confidential.

What happens after you file

• Serious hazards, especially imminent dangers, may get an on-site inspection. Signed written complaints from current workers are more likely to lead to an inspection.
• Less serious hazards may be handled by phone or letter: OSHA contacts the employer, and the employer must respond in writing with what they fixed.
• If there is an inspection, you or a worker representative can walk around with the inspector and point out hazards.
• You can get a copy of any citations. Employers must post citations near the hazard for 3 working days, or until it’s fixed, whichever is longer.

See OSHA Inspections.

If you’re punished for speaking up

Retaliation includes firing, demotion, cutting hours, reassignment to worse work, threats, blacklisting and reporting you to immigration. If it happens:

1. Act fast. Under federal law you generally have only 30 days to file a retaliation complaint with OSHA under Section 11(c). Some state plans allow more time, but don’t wait.
2. File by phone, online, or in person. You don’t need a lawyer, and filing is free.
3. Keep copies of texts, schedules, pay stubs, and anything in writing about the job and what changed.

Other laws may also protect you, such as transportation, environmental, and state whistleblower laws, and some of them have different deadlines. See Whistleblower Protection.

Rights for every worker

• Immigration status: OSHA rights apply to all workers, regardless of immigration status. OSHA does not ask about status. See Immigrant Workers.
• Temporary and staffing agency workers have the same safety rights. The staffing agency and the host employer share responsibility. See Temp & Staffing Workers.
• Young workers have the same rights, plus child labor protections. See Young & Teen Workers.
• Language: training must be in a language and vocabulary you understand. See Multilingual Crews.

Who is not covered by OSHA

The OSH Act doesn’t cover self-employed people, immediate family members working on family farms, or workplaces regulated by another federal agency, such as mines (MSHA). State and local government workers are covered only in states with an OSHA-approved state plan. See State Plans Overview. Truly independent contractors aren’t employees, but many workers called “contractors” are really employees. See Misclassification.

Last updated: October 1, 2026