A: |
OSHA only has
jurisdiction over employers and their employees
exposed to hazards during their routine work
process. However, some provisions of OSHA
regulations are indirectly intended to create a
"standard" of sorts for manufacturers.
We see this in the negotiated steel erection
rule with anchorage issues, and we see it in the
upcoming negotiated crane rule requiring
insulators in the red zones near power lines.
If manufacturers don't manufacture the steel
with the anchorage the contractor needs, he'll
lose business. Same on the crane
manufacturer's since most contractors won't want
equipment that they have to add a $16,000
insulator to before they can use it. And
so it is with scaffolds. The 10 foot rule
exists to distinguish when any surface can now
qualify as a scaffold that is subject to
subpart L's requirements. They can make
scaffolds that are shorter and have all the same
scaffold components (guardrails, toeboards,
etc.) but 10 feet is when the device, whatever
you call it, can be held subject to scaffold
requirements.
Call OSHA 10 times, get 10
answers, but here's the one you can bank on
because I've handled hundreds of OSHA cases
in 20 years----if, for any reason you use a
device that you call a scaffold, and it is
under 10 feet, so you don't attach the
guardrails or toeboards or access ladders
that the manufacturer designed to go with it,
then you have failed to use it as designed and
it is now NOT a scaffold, but a walking, working
surface. Your duty to provide fall protection doesn't
change over 6 feet, only the regulation to be
cited changes--from subpart L to subpart M.
If the scaffold is designed by the manufacturer
to stand less than 10 feet and is NOT
manufactured with any guardrail components, and
has manufacturer instructions to use it as a
"scaffold" without guardrails, then
please submit the manufacturer information to
TCA for research and to get an opinion from OSHA
technical services on how they will categorize
this piece of equipment -- as a scaffold,
or a walking, working surface. Even Baker
and Web Tex scaffolds, commonly used
without their guardrails (though this is
improper) and at lower levels than 10 feet,
or even 6 feet, are actually designed and
manufactured with guardrail components and
carry warnings on their equipment requiring and
recommending the use of guardrails at all times.
WebTex has a warning on some equipment
recommending that all the scaffold components
(guardrails, etc.) be used over four feet
(this was read to me today by a contractor
reading directly off a WebTex scaffold warning).
OSHA globally incorporates manufacturer
instructions and design by reference throughout
the Code of Federal Regulations. Because
of this, any failure to follow a manufacturer's
original design or instruction is citable under
OSHA, no matter what the OSHA regulation says.
I wish an OSHA 10-hour course,
or any other safety class out there, could
tell employers everything they need to know.
Then I could retire.
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A: |
No, we have never
written an amendment or created any variance
allowing handguns to be carried into the
workplace. Most major owners, if not all Fortune
100 owners in Houston, prohibit workers
and contractor workers from carrying handguns
(or any weapons) into the workplace.
Permits to carry guns are specifically not
sufficient to supercede this requirement and
typically notices are posted. Peace
officers that are not engaged in either their
voluntary duty capacity or paid duty capacity
are not entitled to any exceptions. In
other words, if you volunteer, or are paid, as
a peace officer at times (or hold a certification
or license relative to such a position) but
you are working as a |
