What is an assembly point?
An assembly point is the place people go after they leave a building in an emergency, so someone can find out who made it out and who did not.
Also called assembly area, muster point, refuge or safe area
What it means.
The federal rule does not use the phrase. 29 CFR 1910.38(c)(4) requires an emergency action plan to include procedures to account for all employees after evacuation, and it leaves the method to the employer. OSHA's guidance says assembly areas, and the nonmandatory appendix to Subpart E of Part 1910 says refuge or safe areas.
The guidance is practical: outdoor areas such as parking lots, open fields or streets away from the emergency, with enough space for everyone, and away from the exit doors so people do not get in the way of emergency crews. OSHA's eTool also suggests choosing a spot up-wind of the building. None of it sets a distance, a sign or a time limit. The assembly point is the means, and accounting for people is the requirement.
Exterior refuge or safe areas may include parking lots, open fields or streets which are located away from the site of the emergency and which provide sufficient space to accommodate the employees.
Where it shows up on a job.
Sites mark one or more assembly points on the evacuation map, name a backup in case the main one is downwind of the problem, and tell visitors and contractors where to go when they sign in.
Where this comes from.
Each source was read on 22 October 2026. Guidance is advice; a regulation is the rule.
- 29 CFR 1910.38Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29. Regulation. Emergency action plans, including the duty to account for employees after evacuation.
- Appendix to Subpart E of Part 1910Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29. Nonmandatory appendix to a regulation. Refuge or safe areas, and the one-warden-per-twenty guideline.
- Evacuation Plans and Procedures eTool, emergency action plan elementsOccupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA guidance, advisory. Assembly areas, head counts and accounting for visitors.
A plain-language definition, not legal advice. For a decision on your site, read the standard that applies to it.
Related terms
- muster point
A muster point is the place a site tells people to gather in an emergency so they can be accounted for; it does the same job as an assembly point under a different name.
- refuge or safe area
Refuge or safe area is the term in OSHA's nonmandatory evacuation appendix for the place people go during an evacuation, inside another part of the building or outside, away from the emergency.
- headcount
A headcount is the check, after people have left, that everyone who should be accounted for is, with the names and last known locations of anyone missing passed to whoever is in charge.
- emergency action plan
An emergency action plan is the written plan that says how people report an emergency, how they get out, who stays to shut things down, and how everyone is accounted for afterwards.
Read moreAssembly point and muster point: who uses which word
In PanoraEmergency muster: Start an event, account for everyone at the muster point on a tablet, and keep the after-action report.