Glossary · Machinery law and conformity
General duty to safeguard
In US workplace safety, the general duty to safeguard is the employer’s duty to protect employees from recognized machine hazards using appropriate safeguarding and controls. OSHA’s general machine guarding rule requires one or more methods of guarding to protect operators and other employees in the machine area.
- USA
- Compliance
In one sentence
The US general duty to safeguard requires employers to protect workers from recognized machine hazards through guarding and other controls.
Example
An employer runs a used press brake without point-of-operation guarding; even though no specific standard names that model, OSHA can cite the general machine guarding rule and require a light curtain or other safeguard.
How it applies
- Legal basis: 29 CFR 1910.212 requires guarding against hazards such as those created by the point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, and flying chips and sparks. Where no specific standard applies, Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, the General Duty Clause, requires a workplace free from recognized serious hazards.
- Addressee: The duty lies with the employer, not the machine builder. US practice relies on the employer's hazard assessment, although buyers often pass requirements on to suppliers by contract.
- Machine safety: Guarding comes before training and warnings. Consensus standards such as ANSI B11 are often used to show what adequate safeguarding looks like.
- Technical documentation: Manuals for the US market should describe the safeguards supplied, the hazards left for the employer to address, and service tasks that require lockout/tagout.
General duty to safeguard vs. EU machinery law
EU law places design obligations on the manufacturer before the product is placed on the market. The US duty is enforced by OSHA at the workplace, where the employer must safeguard the machine as installed and used.