The Florida Senate

442.109  Material safety data sheet required to be available for employee examination; employer and employee rights when unavailable.--

(1)  Every employer who manufactures, produces, uses, or applies toxic substances in the workplace shall maintain a material safety data sheet for each product which is present in such workplace. All material safety data sheets shall be readily available in the workplace. Employers who only store toxic substances in the workplace are not required to maintain material safety data sheets in the workplace so long as the material safety data sheets are made available to the employee within 10 working days.

(a)  A material safety data sheet may be kept in any form, including operations procedures, and may be designed to cover groups of toxic chemicals in a work area in which it may be appropriate to address the hazards of a process rather than individual toxic chemicals. However, the employer shall ensure that in all cases the required information is provided for each toxic chemical and is readily accessible during each workshift to employees when they are in their work areas.

(b)  Any employee or her or his designated representative may request in writing and shall have the right to examine and obtain the material safety data sheets for the toxic substances to which she or he is, has been, or may be exposed. The employer shall provide any material safety data sheet within its possession within 5 of the requesting employee's working days, subject to the provisions of s. 442.107(2). The employer may adopt reasonable procedures for acting upon such requests to avoid interruption of normal work operations.

(c)  An independent contractor or subcontractor working in the workplace of another employer may request in writing and shall have the right to examine the material safety data sheets for the toxic substances to which she or he or her or his employees, are, have been, or may be exposed. The employer shall provide any material safety data sheet within its possession within 5 of the requesting independent contractor's or subcontractor's working days, subject to the provisions of s. 442.107(2). The employer may adopt reasonable procedures for acting upon such requests to avoid interruption of normal work operations.

(d)  If an employee who has requested a material safety data sheet pursuant to this act has not received it within 5 of the requesting employee's working days, subject to the provisions of s. 442.107(2), that employee may refuse to work with the substance for which she or he has requested the material safety data sheet until it is provided. However, nothing contained in this paragraph shall be construed to permit any employee of the state or any of its political subdivisions to refuse to perform essential services. Further, nothing shall be construed to interfere with the right of the employer to transfer an employee who so refuses to work to other duties until the material safety data sheet is provided; such a transfer shall not be considered as a discriminatory act under s. 442.116. No pay, position, seniority, or other benefit shall be lost as a result of such a transfer for the exercise of any right provided by this act.

(2)  For the purposes of this section, an independent contractor, subcontractor, the state, or any political subdivision of the state shall maintain material safety data sheets only for its own workplaces; however, the employees of an independent contractor or subcontractor, insofar as they are exposed in the course of their employment to toxic substances in other workplaces, have the right to examine the material safety data sheets for the substances to which they are exposed in those workplaces from the workplace employers through a written request to their own employer as provided in paragraph (1)(b).

(3)  Employers must advise employees that they can obtain further information from the secretary.

(4)  Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to require an employer to conduct studies to develop new information.

History.--s. 6, ch. 84-223; s. 3, ch. 87-202; s. 7, ch. 91-269; s. 289, ch. 96-406; s. 1057, ch. 97-103.