Oregon Revised Statutes

Or. Rev. Stat. § 654.003 (2026)

Purpose

✓ current as of May 2026
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      654.003 Purpose. The purpose of the Oregon Safe Employment Act is to ensure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working person in Oregon, to preserve our human resources and to reduce the substantial burden, in terms of lost production, wage loss, medical expenses, disability compensation payments and human suffering, that is created by occupational injury and disease. To accomplish this purpose the Legislative Assembly intends to provide a procedure that will:

      (1) Encourage employers and employees to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards and to institute new programs and improve existing programs for providing safe and healthful working conditions.

      (2) Establish a coordinated program of worker and employer education, health and safety consultative services, demonstration projects and research to assist workers and their employers in preventing occupational injury and disease, whatever the cause.

      (3) Authorize the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services and the designees of the director to set reasonable, mandatory, occupational safety and health standards for all employments and places of employment.

      (4) Provide an effective program, under the director, to enforce all laws, regulations, rules and standards adopted for the protection of the life, safety and health of employees, and in so doing, predominantly prioritize inspections of places of employment to first focus enforcement activities upon places of employment that the director reasonably believes to be the most unsafe.

      (5) Establish appropriate reporting and research procedures that will help achieve the objectives of the Oregon Safe Employment Act, identify occupational hazards and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, and describe the nature of the occupational safety and health problem.

      (6) Assure that Oregon assumes fullest responsibility, in accord with the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 U.S.C. 651 et seq.), for the development, administration and enforcement of safety and health laws and standards. [1973 c.833 §3; 1987 c.884 §55; 1999 c.1017 §1; 2017 c.238 §1]

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 25 cases (4 in the last 5 years), 1983–2025 · leading case: Shockey v. City of Portland, 837 P.2d 505 (Or. 1992).
Shockey v. City of Portland, 837 P.2d 505 (Or. 1992). · cites it 4× “" ORS 654.003. To accomplish that purpose, the Legislative Assembly provides a procedure that "[e]ncourage[s] employers and employees to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards and to institute new programs and improve existing programs for providing safe and…”
Shahtout v. Emco Garbage Co., 695 P.2d 897 (Or. 1985). · cites it 2× “ORS 654.003, 654.025. The rule provides: “(1) All vehicles shall be equipped with an audible warning device which can be clearly heard above the surrounding noise in the vicinity of the vehicle.”
Oregon Occupational Saf. & Health Div. v. CBI Servs., Inc., 341 P.3d 701 (Or. 2014). “” ORS 654.003. To effectuate that purpose, the Act imposes on every employer the burden of “furnishing] employment and a place of employment which are safe and healthful for employees therein.”
OR-OSHA v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 494 P.3d 959 (Or. Ct. App. 2021). · cites it 2× “” ORS 654.003. Another purpose is to assume “fullest responsibility,” in accord with the federal Act, for developing, administering, and enforcing workplace safety and health laws and standards in Oregon.”
Anderson v. Evergreen Int'l Airlines, Inc., 886 P.2d 1068 (Or. Ct. App. 1994). · cites it 2× “9 ORS 654.003 expresses the legislature’s policy in enacting the OSEA: “The purpose of the Oregon Safe Employment Act is to assure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman in Oregon, to preserve our human resources * * (Emphasis…”
Ossanna v. Nike, Inc., 415 P.3d 55 (Or. Ct. App. 2018). “See ORS 654.003. In relevant part, ORS 654.062(6) gives employees a private right of action against employers who are alleged to have violated ORS 654.”
Miller v. Georgia-Pac. Corp., 662 P.2d 718 (Or. 1983). “) ORS 654.003. 4 It aims to achieve occupational health and safety in “* * * every place, whether fixed or movable or moving, whether indoors or out or underground, and the premises and structures appurtenant thereto, where either temporarily or permanently an employe works * *…”
Cain v. Bovis Lend Lease, Inc., 817 F. Supp. 2d 1251 (D. Or. 2011). “An “Employee” includes, in pertinent part, “[a]ny individual ... who engages to furnish services for a remuneration, financial or otherwise, subject to the direction and control of an employer,” and “[a]ny individual who is provided with workers’ compensation coverage as a…”
Butler v. State Dep't of Corr., 909 P.2d 163 (Or. Ct. App. 1995). “ORS 654.003 states that the Act is intended to “assure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman in Oregon.”
Oregon Occupational Saf. & Health Div. v. Don Whitaker Logging, Inc., 985 P.2d 1272 (Or. 1999). “Under that grant of authority, the Director promulgated OAR 437-01-760(3)(c), which sets out the circumstances under which the state will hold employers responsible for the acts of their supervisors.”
Oregon Occupational Saf. & Health Div. v. Don Whitaker Logging, Inc., 941 P.2d 1025 (Or. Ct. App. 1997). · cites it 2× “That conclusion is supported by ORS 654.003, which declares a purpose of OSEA *469 “to assure as far as possible safe and healthful working conditions for every working man and woman in Oregon.”
Moe v. Beck, 785 P.2d 781 (Or. Ct. App. 1990). · cites it 2× “” ORS 654.003. (Emphasis supplied.) Perhaps the dissent, or even the majority, would make a different policy choice if that were our responsibility, but requiring an owner of a workplace to comply with the SEA, even an owner who has chosen not to exercise actual control, cannot…”
— Or. Rev. Stat. § 654.003(1) — 1 case
Shockey v. City of Portland, 837 P.2d 505 (Or. 1992). “" ORS 654.003. To accomplish that purpose, the Legislative Assembly provides a procedure that "[e]ncourage[s] employers and employees to reduce the number of occupational safety and health hazards and to institute new programs and improve existing programs for providing safe and…”
— Or. Rev. Stat. § 654.003(6) — 2 cases
OR-OSHA v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 494 P.3d 959 (Or. Ct. App. 2021). “” ORS 654.003. Another purpose is to assume “fullest responsibility,” in accord with the federal Act, for developing, administering, and enforcing workplace safety and health laws and standards in Oregon.”
Oregon Occupational Saf. & Health Div. v. PGE Co., 849 P.2d 544 (Or. Ct. App. 1993).
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