Occupational Health and Safety is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. As a secondary effect, it may also protect co-workers, family members, employers, customers, suppliers, nearby communities, and other members of the public who are impacted by the workplace environment.

Moral - An employee should not have to risk injury at work, nor should others associated with the work environment.

Economic - many governments realise that poor occupational safety and health performance results in cost to the State (e.g. through social security payments to the incapacitated, costs for medical treatment, and the loss of the "employability" of the worker). Employing organisations also sustain costs in the event of an incident at work (such as legal fees, fines, compensatory damages, investigation time, lost production, lost goodwill from the workforce, from customers and from the wider community).

Legal - Occupational safety and health requirements may be reinforced in civil law and/or criminal law; it is accepted that without the extra "encouragement" of potential regulatory action or litigation, many organisations would not act upon their implied moral obligations

Occupational safety and health may involve interaction among many cognate disciplines, including occupational medicine, occupational or industrial hygiene, public health, safety engineering, health physics, ergonomics, toxicology, epidemiology, industrial relations, public policy, sociology, and psychology.