§21-3-1. Employers to safeguard life, etc., of employees; reports and investigations of accidents; orders of commissioner.
Every employer shall furnish employment which shall be reasonably safe for the employees therein engaged and shall furnish and use safety devices and safeguards, and shall adopt and use methods and processes reasonably adequate to render employment and the place of employment safe, and shall do every other thing reasonably necessary to protect the life, health, safety, and welfare of such employees: Provided, That as used in this section, the terms "safe" or "safety" as applied to any employment, place of employment, place of public assembly or public building, shall include, without being restricted hereby, conditions and methods of sanitation and hygiene reasonably necessary for the protection of the life, health, safety, or welfare of employees or the public.
Every employer and every owner of a place of employment, place of public assembly, or a public building, now or hereafter constructed, shall so construct, repair and maintain the same as to render it reasonably safe.
When an accident occurs in any place of employment or public institution which results in injury to any employee, the employer or owner of such place of employment or public institution, when the same shall come to his knowledge, shall provide the commissioner of labor the necessary information as to cause of the injury, on blanks furnished free of charge to the employer and prescribed by the commissioner of labor.
To carry out the provisions of this chapter the commissioner of labor shall have the power to investigate and prescribe that reasonable safety devices, safeguards, or other means of protection be adopted for the prevention of accidents in every employment or place of employment, and to make, modify, repeal, and enforce reasonable general orders, applicable to either employers or employees, or both, for the prevention of accidents.
All orders of the commissioner of labor shall be prima facie lawful and reasonable, and shall not be held invalid because of any technical omission, provided there is substantial compliance with the provisions of this chapter.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
21
cases (
2 in the last 5 years), 1982–2023 · leading case:
Pack v. Van Meter, 354 S.E.2d 581 (W. Va. 1986).
Pack v. Van Meter, 354 S.E.2d 581 (W. Va. 1986).
· cites it 12× “Code, 21-3-6, only applies to employers and their employees and cite several of our past decisions interpreting related statutes.”
Taylor v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 437 S.E.2d 733 (W. Va. 1993).
· cites it 20× “2d 581 (1986), wherein we stated that "[u]nder W.Va.Code, 21-3-1, the employer and the owner of a place of employment, place of public assembly, or a public building is affixed with a statutory responsibility to maintain such place in a reasonably safe condition.”
France v. S. Equip. Co., 689 S.E.2d 1 (W. Va. 2010).
· cites it 2× “2d 581 (1986) ("Under W.Va.Code, 21-3-1, the employer *11 and the owner of a place of employment, place of public assembly, or a public building is affixed with a statutory responsibility to maintain such place in a reasonably safe condition.”
Davis v. Monsanto Co., 627 F. Supp. 418 (S.D.W. Va 1986).
· cites it 2× “Code, § 21-3-1 states: “Every employer shall ..”
Steward v. McDonald, 958 S.W.2d 297 (Ark. 1997).
“Because the statute was silent on whether this duty was owed by the Van Meters, the Supreme Court looked to its safe-workplace statute for guidance: W.Va.Code, 21-3-1, is the introductory section in the part of our Code relating mainly to the safety and welfare of employees in…”
Henderson v. Meredith Lumber Co., Inc., 438 S.E.2d 324 (W. Va. 1993).
“Code 21-3-6 [1923], Pack also noted that some of the safety requirements “in W.Va.Code, 21-3-1 through -18 ... are clearly the responsibility of an employer because they involve machines or other instrumentalities directly related to the employment activity over which the owner…”
Washington v. Union Carbide Corp., 870 F.2d 957 (4th Cir. 1989).
“W.Va.Code § 21-3-1. Federal and West Virginia state courts have several times recognized and applied this statute as one imposing, as a matter of state policy, an obligation upon employers to maintain reasonably safe employment conditions.”
Smith v. Dodrill, 718 F. Supp. 1293 (N.D.W. Va. 1989).
· cites it 2× “Plaintiffs support their theory by arguing that the defendant had a statutory duty to provide a safe place to work under West Virginia Code § 21-3-1. The Court has not been persuaded that a significant distinction has been made.”
Julie Conrad v. Council of Senior Citizens of Gilmer Cnty. (W. Va. 2016).
· cites it 14× “The employer’s duty is directly related to the employment activity that is controlled by the employer and the owner’s duty is limited to providing a reasonably safe workplace, unless the owner continues to exercise control of the place of employment.”
Abel v. Niche Polymer, LLC (S.D.W. Va 2020).
· cites it 12× “In his complaint, Abel alleges that the Safety and Welfare of Employees Act, W. Va. Code § 21-3-1 , mandates a clear public policy that 5 protects workplace safety.”
Johnson v. Pinnacle Mining Co., LLC (S.D.W. Va 2018).
· cites it 7× “” W. Va. Code § 21-3-1 . The West Virginia Supreme Court has explained: The employer's duty is directly related to employment activity— activity controlled by the employer—and the owner's duty is limited to providing a reasonably safe workplace, unless the owner continues to…”
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