Right-to-Know on a Site With Five Subcontractors: Chemical Information Every Worker Can Reach
By KnowledgeCity · 13 min read ·
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A general contractor with 5 subcontractors on site usually assumes it owes hazard communication training to everyone working there. The rule divides the work differently from that assumption. 29 CFR 1910.1200 gives the host employer a duty about its written program. Every employer also has a duty to train its own employees and to keep safety data sheets available in its work areas.
Those are 3 duties with 3 separate holders, and a concrete case shows how they divide, because each paragraph names its own holder and none of them names the site.
A flooring subcontractor brings a solvent-based adhesive onto a site in construction and engineering where a general contractor and 4 other trades are working. The adhesive belongs to the flooring sub, and the site belongs to the general contractor. Electricians working 10 feet away are employed by a third company, which makes 3 employers within 10 feet of one container.
29 CFR 1926.59 makes the requirements applicable to construction work identical to those in 1910.1200. The same paragraphs therefore answer the question for your site. What they answer is who owes what, and the answer is rarely the one the general contractor expects.
Who Owes What on a Multi-Employer Site
Who owes what is settled by 3 provisions that operate independently of each other. Each names a different holder, so no single employer carries the whole site, and the general contractor's instinct to take all 3 is the commonest error here. Reading them together is what tells you which of the 3 is yours.
| The duty | Who holds it | Where it is set |
|---|---|---|
| Describe in the written program the methods used to give other on-site employers access to safety data sheets, precautionary information, and the labeling system | The employer who produces, uses, or stores the chemicals | 1910.1200(e)(2) |
| Provide information and training on the hazardous chemicals in the work area | Each employer, for its own employees | 1910.1200(h)(1) |
| Maintain safety data sheets in the workplace and keep them readily accessible during each work shift | Each employer, for the employees in its work areas | 1910.1200(g)(8) |
Common but wrong
The general contractor has to train every worker on the site.
1910.1200(h)(1) places the training duty on the employer of the employees being trained. The flooring sub trains its own crew on the adhesive. The electrical contractor trains its own crew on the chemicals its people work with.
All 3 Can Apply to One Chemical
All 3 duties can apply to the same chemical at the same time. The flooring sub uses the adhesive, so it holds the (e)(2) program duty toward the other employers on site. It trains its own crew under (h)(1) as well, and the general contractor holds (e)(2) for anything it brings on site itself. Every employer with people near the adhesive owes (g)(8) access to its own workers.
A site can get this wrong in either direction. One site runs a single training session for everyone and records it centrally. That satisfies (h)(1) only for the employees of whoever ran the session, because the duty belongs to each employer separately. Another site assumes every sub handles its own affairs entirely, and leaves the (e)(2) methods missing from the host employer's written program.
What the Host Employer's Program Has to Say
The host employer's written program is where (e)(2) is satisfied, and the paragraph asks for methods. 1910.1200(e)(2) applies to employers who produce, use, or store hazardous chemicals at a workplace in such a way that the employees of other employers may be exposed. It names employees of a construction contractor working on-site as its own example. The program has to include 3 sets of methods.
- The methods the employer will use to provide the other employers on-site access to safety data sheets for each hazardous chemical their employees may be exposed to.
- The methods used to inform them of any precautionary measures needed during normal operating conditions and in foreseeable emergencies.
- The methods used to inform them of the labeling system used at the workplace.
Methods, Written Down
A method has to be specific enough to act on, and a vague one satisfies the paragraph poorly. A program stating only that safety data sheets are available on request describes a method, and it is the weakest one that still satisfies the words of the paragraph. Naming the trailer, the binder, and the person who holds the key describes a better one.
That better version answers a question 6 months later about whether the electrical contractor had access on a particular day. Your own file is what the question lands on. The same discipline appears in this guide to documentation that survives an inspection.
1910.1200(e)(1) sets the base contents of any program. Every program describes how the label, safety data sheet, and training criteria will be met. It includes a list of the hazardous chemicals known to be present, and states the methods used to inform employees of the hazards of non-routine tasks.
An employer may rely on an existing hazard communication program under 1910.1200(e)(3), provided it meets the criteria in paragraph (e). A contractor with a corporate program can use it on this site once the multi-employer methods have been added to it. Adding them is a small edit, and it is the edit most corporate programs are missing, because head office wrote the program for a single-employer facility.
The written program is then made available, on request, to employees and their designated representatives under 1910.1200(e)(4). A worker who asks for it is entitled to see it. Refusing, or taking a week to find it, becomes its own finding.
What Readily Accessible Means When Crews Move Between Locations
That access has a physical test attached to it.
1910.1200(g)(8) requires the employer to maintain copies of the required safety data sheets in the workplace. They have to be readily accessible during each work shift to employees when they are in their work areas. The same paragraph permits electronic access and other alternatives to paper, as long as those options create no barriers to immediate employee access in each workplace.
| The document | Where it may be kept | The condition |
|---|---|---|
| Safety data sheets, employees in a fixed work area | In the workplace | Readily accessible during each work shift to employees in their work areas, 1910.1200(g)(8) |
| Safety data sheets, electronic form | Any format, including electronic | No barriers to immediate employee access in each workplace, 1910.1200(g)(8) |
| Safety data sheets, crews traveling during a shift | The primary workplace facility | Work is carried out at more than one geographical location, 1910.1200(g)(9) |
| The written hazard communication program, traveling crews | The primary workplace facility | The same condition, 1910.1200(e)(5) |
The Barrier Test on a Live Site
A tablet in a site office is compliant while the office is open to the crew and the tablet works. A locked office during a night pour creates a barrier. A QR code on a container that needs a signal the basement floor does not have creates a barrier.
A binder in the general contractor's trailer 400 feet from the flooring crew is the harder case. The question is whether a worker standing in that work area can obtain the sheet immediately, without waiting for somebody to unlock a door. Answer it for each work area on your site, one area at a time.
1910.1200(g)(9) covers the mobile case for traveling crews. Where employees must travel between workplaces during a workshift, their work is carried out at more than one geographical location. The safety data sheets may then be kept at the primary workplace facility, and 1910.1200(e)(5) applies the same allowance to the written program.
Those allowances belong to the employer whose employees travel. Each worker's access is owed by that worker's own employer. The same split governs who has to deliver the training.
Each Employer Trains Its Own People, and When
Each worker's own employer owes the training, whatever the site arrangement looks like. No general contractor can discharge it for them. 1910.1200(h)(1) sets 2 points at which it is due.
- At the time of their initial assignment.
- Whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced into their work area.
Paragraph (h) sets no annual repeat, which surprises most sites. Sites that run one anyway are free to do so. Record it in the written program as a company policy, so an inspector reading your file can see which requirement each session answers.
What Counts as a New Hazard
The second trigger is the one that matters where trades rotate through an area. When the flooring sub brings the adhesive into a space the electrical contractor's people are working in, the electrical contractor decides whether its employees have already been trained about that hazard. Nobody else on the site can make that decision for them.
1910.1200(h)(1) allows information and training to be designed to cover categories of hazards, such as flammability or carcinogenicity, or to cover specific chemicals. It requires chemical-specific information to be available through labels and safety data sheets in either case. A crew trained on solvent flammability as a category may already be covered for the adhesive, which is a judgment the electrical contractor records in writing.
The Content Floor
1910.1200(h)(2) requires employees to be informed of the requirements of the section. They also have to be told of any operations in their work area where hazardous chemicals are present. The location and availability of the written program, the chemical lists, and the safety data sheets go with it.
Training content is set by 1910.1200(h)(3), and the list is longer than most sessions cover. It names the methods and observations used to detect the presence or release of a hazardous chemical in the work area, and the physical and health hazards of the chemicals there. Each item has to appear somewhere in the session.
It also names the measures employees can take to protect themselves, including work practices and personal protective equipment. The details of the employer's own program close the list, including the labeling system and how to read a safety data sheet. Checking your own deck against those 4 groups takes an hour.
That content stays stable from site to site, which is why most contractors deliver it once per employee and add the site-specific part on arrival. Holding the per-person record at company level is part of managing safety training programs. The second trigger is what each site adds to it.
Settling the Site's Chemical Information Before Work Starts
All of it belongs in place before work starts, and settling it is a short exercise for a site with 5 subcontractors. Half a morning with the 5 programs on a table covers it. The list is short enough to work through in one meeting:
- Each employer bringing chemicals on site adds the multi-employer methods to its own written program under (e)(2).
- The general contractor collects those programs and knows which employer holds which chemical.
- Every employer confirms its own crew has been trained under (h)(1), and identifies any new hazard this site introduces for its people.
- Safety data sheets are available in each work area during each work shift, in a form a worker can open immediately.
- Someone can produce the written program on request, in the version that applied on the day being asked about.
The last item is where sites usually fail, and it fails without anybody noticing. Programs are revised as trades arrive, and 6 months later nobody can show which version the electrical contractor was given in March. KC Docs versions the program and records which audience received which version, so that question has a retrievable answer.
Chemical information every worker can reach is a higher standard than the floor the regulation sets. A general contractor that runs one site-wide access method for all 5 subs makes the (e)(2) methods easier to describe and easier to evidence. Every employer on that site still owes its own crew the training under (h)(1), and no site-wide arrangement moves that duty anywhere else.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does the general contractor have to train subcontractor employees on hazard communication?
No. Under 29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(1) the training duty belongs to the employer of the employees being trained, so each subcontractor trains its own crew. The general contractor's separate duty under 1910.1200(e)(2) applies where it produces, uses, or stores hazardous chemicals in a way that other employers' employees may be exposed, and it is a duty to describe in its written program the methods used to give those employers access to safety data sheets and information.
2. How often is hazard communication training required?
29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(1) sets 2 triggers. Training is due at the time of an employee's initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced into their work area. Paragraph (h) sets no annual repeat. An employer that runs annual refresher training does so as a matter of its own policy.
3. Can safety data sheets be kept electronically on a construction site?
Yes. 29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(8) requires safety data sheets to be maintained in the workplace and readily accessible during each work shift to employees in their work areas, and the same paragraph permits electronic access and other alternatives to paper copies, as long as no barriers to immediate employee access in each workplace are created. A device behind a locked door or in an area without signal creates such a barrier.
4. Where can safety data sheets be kept if crews move between sites?
29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(9) provides that where employees must travel between workplaces during a workshift, so that their work is carried out at more than one geographical location, the safety data sheets may be kept at the primary workplace facility. 1910.1200(e)(5) allows the written hazard communication program to be kept there on the same condition. The allowance belongs to the employer whose employees travel.
5. What must the written hazard communication program contain on a multi-employer site?
Beyond the base contents in 1910.1200(e)(1), an employer covered by 1910.1200(e)(2) must include the methods it will use to provide other on-site employers access to safety data sheets, the methods used to inform them of precautionary measures for normal operations and foreseeable emergencies, and the methods used to inform them of the workplace labeling system. Under 1910.1200(e)(3) an existing corporate program can be used once those methods are added.
References
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1926.59, hazard communication requirements for construction work."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(1), contents of the written hazard communication program."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(2), multi-employer workplaces."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(e)(4) and (e)(5), availability of the program and traveling employees."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(8), safety data sheets readily accessible during each work shift."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(g)(9), safety data sheets for employees traveling between workplaces."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(1) and (h)(2), when training is due and what employees are informed of."
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. "29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(3), the contents of employee training."