Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health,^[1] or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at occupation. These terms also refer to the goals of this field,^[2] so their use in the sense of this article was originally an abbreviation of occupational safety and health program/department etc.

The goal of an occupational safety and health program is to foster a safe and healthy occupational environment.^[3] OSH also protects all the general public who may be affected by the occupational environment.^[4]

In common-law jurisdictions, employers have a common law duty to take reasonable care of the safety of their employees.^[5] Statute law may, in addition, impose other general duties, introduce specific duties, and create government bodies with powers to regulate occupational safety issues: details of this vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.