New Hampshire — Workplace Safety

New Hampshire does not operate an OSHA-approved state plan under Section 18 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Federal OSHA administers and enforces occupational safety and health standards for all private-sector employers and their employees in the state. Federal OSHA does not cover state, county, and municipal government employers; those public-sector workplaces fall under separate New Hampshire state authority.

Source: OSHA State Plans

New Hampshire public-sector employers — the state and all political subdivisions including cities, towns, and counties — are subject to state occupational safety and health standards under RSA Chapter 277 and the implementing administrative rules in N.H. Admin. Rules Lab 1400, not federal OSHA. Private-sector employers in New Hampshire fall under federal OSHA jurisdiction, but RSA 277 became enforceable only in the public sector after Congress enacted the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970.

Scope — definition of public employer

Under RSA 277:1-b(II), "Employer" means "the state or any of its political subdivisions operating a place of employment." The statute applies to all places of employment in which one or more persons are regularly employed (RSA 277:1). Volunteers or auxiliary members of fire departments, police departments, ambulance services, or the state police — whether paid or unpaid — are deemed employees when performing official service or duty for a political subdivision (RSA 277:1-b(I)).

General duty clause

New Hampshire imposes a general duty clause parallel to federal OSHA's § 5(a)(1). Under N.H. Admin. Rules Lab 1403.01(a), each employer must "furnish to each of its employees employment and a place of employment that are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to its employees." The rule further requires employers to instruct each employee in the recognition and avoidance of unsafe conditions and in the rules applicable to the employee's work environment to control or eliminate any hazards or other exposure to illness or injury.

Employees also have obligations. Lab 1403.01(b) requires each employee to comply with all safety rules and regulations applicable to the employee's own actions and conduct.

Enforcement by the New Hampshire Department of Labor

The New Hampshire Labor Commissioner administers and enforces RSA 277 and Lab 1400. Under RSA 277:13, the Commissioner "shall cause all places of employment subject to this law to be inspected at intervals to be determined by him, for the purpose of determining whether the provisions of this chapter have been complied with and the conditions therein with respect to the safety and health of the employees." The Commissioner has authority under RSA 277:16 to adopt rules as reasonably necessary to carry out the provisions of RSA 277:10 (sanitation requirements) and 277:11 (safeguards for machinery and hazardous conditions).

Substantive standards in Lab 1400

The Lab 1400 administrative rules contain numerous specific safety and health standards applicable to public employers, covering topics such as:

• Accident reporting and recordkeeping (Lab 1403.04): Employers must keep an annual log of all workplace injuries and illnesses for which a first report of injury is submitted to the Department of Labor, made available to safety inspectors on request.
• Machine guarding (Lab 1403.36)
• Personal protective equipment (Lab 1403.43)
• Respiratory protection (Lab 1403.47): Respirators must be selected by the employer based on the hazard to which the worker is exposed and provided as necessary to protect health.
• Noise exposure (Lab 1403.38): Employers must ensure that protection against occupational noise exposure is provided when sound levels exceed permissible noise exposures in the regulation's table; feasible engineering or administrative controls must be used first, with personal protective equipment required when controls fail to reduce noise to acceptable levels. Exposure to impulsive or impact noise may not exceed 140 dB peak sound pressure level.
• Confined-space entry
• Washing and toilet facilities (RSA 277:10 and Lab 1403.62): Every public employer must provide and maintain reasonable and proper toilet facilities and reasonably sanitary and hygienic conditions for employees.

The prohibition in Lab 1403.01(d) states: "The use of any machinery, tool, material, or equipment which is not in compliance with any applicable requirement of these rules shall be prohibited."

Relationship to federal OSHA standards

RSA 277 and Lab 1400 are not an OSHA-approved state plan under Section 18 of the federal OSH Act. New Hampshire has never obtained federal approval for a comprehensive state occupational safety and health program. Consequently, public employers in New Hampshire are covered by state law alone, while private employers remain under federal OSHA enforcement. The state standards in Lab 1400 do not automatically mirror or adopt federal OSHA standards, though some provisions are similar in structure (such as the general duty clause). Practitioners advising public employers should consult the actual text of RSA 277 and Lab 1400 rather than assuming federal OSHA rules apply by reference.

Right to petition for inspection

Under RSA 277:13-a (employee petition for inspection), employees or their representatives may petition the Commissioner for an inspection of a public workplace. This mirrors the federal OSHA employee complaint mechanism but is a separate state-law right.

Source: RSA 277 Source: RSA 277:1 Source: RSA 277:13 Source: N.H. Admin. Rules Lab 1400 Source: NH DOL Safety & Training Division