The New Add to the OSHA Top Violations List: Fall Protection Training Requirements
The Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) top 10 most frequently cited safety and health violations for fiscal year 2017 has been published. The list is published each year to bring awareness to the areas safety improvements in industry need to be made. Violations that make the list are usually quite severe – lockout/tagout for example, and fall protection can present life threatening situations. The list rarely alters from year to year, with just slight possible changes in ordering. This can be noted in the chart below, comparing fiscal year 2017, to fiscal year 2016.
*Source: National Safety Council, Safety + Health Magazine December 2017 Issue
Fall Protection Training Requirements: OSHA Standard 1926.503
The addition of fall protection training requirements to the OSHA top 10 list is concerning, and needs to be addressed with the same urgency as the list’s repeat offenders. Let’s take a look at the requirements in this standard to be compliant.
Employers must provide a training program for every employee exposed to fall hazards. The training must be taught by a qualified person and address the following: nature of fall hazards in the work area, correct procedures for erecting, maintaining, disassembling, and inspecting the fall protection systems to be used, use and operation of guardrail systems, personal fall arrest systems, safety net systems, warning line systems, safety monitoring systems, and controlled access zones. Following training, employees must be able to identify fall hazards and procedures to follow that minimize fall hazard risks.
A written certification record of the training needs to be kept on file, and contain the name of the employee trained, date of training, and signature of trainer or employer who required the training. Retraining is an important component of the fall protection training requirements standard.
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