ABC March 18 testified before the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during an informal hearing expressing overall support for a proposed rule on crane safety, but advising OSHA to clarify the rule to make it easier for employers and employees to use.  

The proposed rule would update the existing 40-year-old safety standards for cranes and derricks in construction and would take into account technological changes and updates to voluntary consensus standards that the industry has developed since the regulations were last revised.  

In its testimony, ABC expressed general support for the rule, but highlighted several areas that were cause for concern.  

“We believe it is important to emphasize that all of our comments and recommendations have been expressed with three goals in mind: to improve the proposed rule; to add greater clarity in order to ensure that OSHA’s safety objectives are more likely to be achieved; and to eliminate, or at the least significantly lessen, burdens that the proposed rule would otherwise needlessly impose,” ABC stated in its testimony.  “ABC strongly believes that the notice-and-comment stage of any rulemaking is intended to give every stakeholder the opportunity to be heard…there remain a host of “t’s” to be crossed and “i’s” to be dotted before this rule is, or should be, finalized.”  

ABC advised OSHA to revisit the comments filed Jan. 22 for more detailed suggestions. In the comments, ABC disagreed with OSHA’s proposals on employer liability for non-compliance with the recommendations of equipment manufacturers, and the regulation of “controlling entities” on construction sites.  In addition, ABC suggested OSHA revise the operator certification requirements to be less narrow.  ABC provided recommendations on how the existing regulatory text could be revised to better achieve OSHA’s objective of safe crane and derrick operations.  

In its testimony ABC also urged OSHA to make it clear that the minimum safety requirements established in the final rule will be considerably more than the bare minimum and that any decisions made to exceed these requirements would be an extra precaution.  

To read ABC’s comments or the full text of the proposed rule, visit www.abc.org/comments.   

For more information, contact Bob Hirsch at ABC, hirsch@abc.org.