Builders Want To Push Back Crane-Safety Rules
Associated Builders and Contractors has issued a letter to the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration seeking to delay Nov. 8 implementation of landmark crane-safety rules.
In the letter, ABC “formally requests that the effective date of the work practice provisions contained in the rule be changed to 90 days from the availability of a reasonable set of compliance resources, rather than 90 days from publication of the final rule.” The letter is signed by Craig Shaffer, president of SafetyWorks Inc., Dillsburg, Pa., and chairman of ABC’s health and safety committee.
The trade group, based in Arlington, Va., contends that OSHA has not issued guidance soon enough to help its 25,000 members get up to speed on the new rules, which were published in the Federal Register on Aug. 9. Since the rule was announced this summer, questions have come up over how to comply with it.
The rules, which updated OSHA’s previous, decades-old crane standards, were negotiated between regulators and industry members between 2003 and 2004. ABC was involved in those negotiations.
