Responsibility For Safety

Though EHS serves as the campus community’s primary advisor and resource on environmental health and safety issues, responsibility for employee health and safety is shared through all levels, from the President to the individual employee. Administrators, directors and anyone acting as a supervisor, in any capacity, bear the primary responsibility for safety in the workplace. Only those who have the decision-making authority can be ultimately responsible for assuring that the work environment is safe and that employees work in a safe manner.

Employees also bear some responsibility. They must adhere to all university and departmental or office safety policies and procedures and comply with safety directives issued by their individual supervisors. But they also need the knowledge, the proper equipment and facilities and the motivation, that only management can provide.

Finally, all members of the campus community must remain vigilant and take the initiative to immediately correct and/or report unsafe conditions or activities they observe. In the final analysis, safety is everyone’s job.