OSHA compliance for a construction contractor comes down to four things: keep the required injury and illness records, meet the construction standards that apply to your work, train your crew, and be able to prove all of it on the day an inspector shows up. Everything below is the detail behind those four obligations — what the standards actually require, where contractors most often slip, and which guide to read for each topic.
This is the hub for our OSHA compliance coverage. Each section links down to a focused article; start here for the map, then go deep where you need to.
Which OSHA rules apply to construction?
Construction work is governed primarily by 29 CFR Part 1926 — OSHA's construction standards. General-industry rules in 29 CFR Part 1910 also reach into construction where 1926 doesn't have its own provision (respiratory protection under 29 CFR 1910.134 is the classic example, pulled in by the silica and other health standards).
Above the specific standards sits the General Duty Clause — Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 — which requires every employer to furnish a workplace "free from recognized hazards." OSHA cites the General Duty Clause when a real hazard exists but no specific standard covers it. You cannot satisfy it with a checklist; you satisfy it by actually controlling recognized hazards.
The practical takeaway: figure out which subparts of 1926 touch your scope of work (fall protection, excavation, scaffolds, electrical, cranes, and so on), and treat the General Duty Clause as the floor underneath all of them.
Obligation 1 — Recordkeeping (29 CFR 1904)
Most construction employers must record work-related injuries and illnesses on OSHA's forms under 29 CFR Part 1904:
- OSHA Form 300 — the log of work-related injuries and illnesses.
- OSHA Form 300A — the annual summary. It must be posted from February 1 through April 30 each year, covering the prior calendar year, in a visible spot.
- OSHA Form 301 — the individual incident report behind each recorded case.
There are two exemptions worth knowing. Employers with ten or fewer employees throughout the prior calendar year are exempt from routinely keeping these records (you still must report severe events — see below). And certain low-hazard industries are partially exempt — but construction is not on that list, so a construction employer over the size threshold is covered.
Recording a case is not the same as reporting one. Regardless of size or exemption, employers must report a work-related fatality within 8 hours, and a work-related in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours, directly to OSHA.
Larger establishments also have to submit their summary data to OSHA electronically through the Injury Tracking Application (ITA). Whether you're in scope depends on establishment size and industry.
> Read next: the recordkeeping cluster covers who must keep logs, how to fill out the 300 / 300A / 301, the posting deadlines, and the recordable-versus-reportable distinction in plain language.
> Free tool: Calculate your incident rates straight from your OSHA 300 log with the free TRIR & DART rate calculator.
Obligation 2 — Meet the standards for your hazards
The bulk of construction compliance is the hazard-specific standards. The four hazards OSHA calls the "Focus Four" cause the large majority of construction fatalities, and they anchor most inspections:
| Focus Four hazard | Typical 1926 subpart |
|---|---|
| Falls | Subpart M (fall protection) |
| Struck-by | Subparts O, N, Q (vehicles, cranes, concrete) |
| Caught-in / between | Subpart P (excavations), machine guarding |
| Electrocution | Subpart K (electrical) |
Beyond the Focus Four, health standards govern specific exposures. The respirable crystalline silica standard for construction (29 CFR 1926.1153) is one of the most frequently cited health standards in the trades, and a good model for how an exposure standard works — exposure limits, engineering controls first, a written exposure control plan, a competent person, respiratory protection, housekeeping rules, medical surveillance, and training.
> Read next: OSHA Silica Requirements for Construction: A Contractor Compliance Guide walks the silica standard obligation by obligation.
Obligation 3 — Designate competent and qualified people
Many 1926 subparts require a competent person — someone capable of identifying hazards and authorized to correct them — to perform specific duties. Excavations (Subpart P), scaffolds (Subpart L), and fall protection all have competent-person requirements, and the role differs subpart to subpart. Some standards go further and require a qualified person with specific training or a professional credential.
Getting this wrong is a common citation: the standard doesn't just want someone responsible, it wants someone with the demonstrated knowledge and the authority to stop unsafe work. Document who your competent person is for each applicable activity, and make sure their training backs up the designation.
Obligation 4 — Train the crew (and keep proof)
Training requirements are scattered across the standards rather than collected in one place. Hazard Communication (the right-to-know standard) applies broadly; fall protection, excavation, scaffold, confined space, and the health standards each carry their own training requirements; and many require refresher training on a cadence or after an incident.
What ties it together for an inspector is proof. A training program you can't evidence — who was trained, on what, when, and that the credential is still current — is hard to defend. Tracking certifications and expirations across a moving crew is the single most common place small and mid-size contractors fall out of compliance without realizing it.
> Read next: the worker-training pillar covers which credentials your crew needs and how to build a training matrix by role and trade.
Obligation 5 — Be ready for the inspection
An OSHA inspection can be triggered by a complaint, a referral, a reported severe event, a programmed emphasis, or an accident. Inspectors look first at the obvious field hazards (the Focus Four), then ask for your paperwork: the 300 logs, the written programs the applicable standards require, training records, and competent-person designations.
Being "inspection-ready" isn't a binder you assemble the night before — it's the state of having the records current and the hazards actually controlled, every day. The contractors who do well in an inspection are the ones for whom the inspection changes nothing about how the site already runs.
How the pieces fit together
| Obligation | What it covers | Governing rule |
|---|---|---|
| Recordkeeping | Injury/illness logs, posting, reporting severe events | 29 CFR 1904 |
| Hazard standards | Focus Four + exposure standards | 29 CFR 1926 (and 1910 where pulled in) |
| Competent person | Designated, authorized hazard identification | Various 1926 subparts |
| Training | Standard-specific + refresher training, with proof | Various; Hazard Communication broadly |
| Inspection readiness | Hazards controlled + records current, daily | General Duty Clause + all of the above |
The honest summary: there is no single "OSHA certificate" for a construction company. Compliance is the ongoing state of doing these five things and being able to show it. The standards are knowable; the hard part is keeping the records current across every crew and job as the work moves.
Doing all of this on spreadsheets and paper is where it breaks down. Jobsite keeps certs, training, inspections, and OSHA recordkeeping in one place and runs an inspector-grade audit across every crew and job — so "inspection-ready" is the default state, not a fire drill. See how it works →
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