News Release USDL: 95-298
Wednesday, August 2, 1995
Contact: Frank Kane, (202) 219-8151

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced today it is amending its new final construction industry fall protection rule to clarify that the requirements do not apply to steel erection activities.

OSHA had delayed until Aug. 6, 1995, application of the rule to any steel erection activities pending a decision by the Steel Erection Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee (SENRAC) on which steel erection activities would be regulated in the proposed steel erection standard.

SENRAC has not decided which steel structures will be subject to the steel erection standard's requirements. Therefore, OSHA has granted SENRAC additional time to develop its proposal for a standard.

Further extending the stay of the fall protection standard would prolong indefinitely the time in which the text of that standard did not adequately reflect the scope of the standard.

Therefore, OSHA is correcting the fall protection standard to accurately reflect that it does not cover steel erection. The existing OSHA construction standards on personal protective equipment also are being amended so that fall protection provisions that have applied to steel erection remain in effect.

After the SENRAC proposal is issued and the scope of the steel erection standard is definite, OSHA will formally propose that the fall protection rule be amended to include any steel erection activity omitted from the steel erection proposal.

Until both the steel erection standard and the fall protection rule are finally revised, the agency's policy on fall protection during steel erection is the policy outlined in Deputy Assistant Secretary James Stanley's July 10, 1995, memorandum to the field entitled, "Fall Protection in Steel Erection." The memorandum provides that the term "steel erection activities" means the movement and erection of skeleton steel members (structural steel) in or on buildings or non-building structures. This includes the initial connecting of steel, employees moving point-to-point, installing metal floor or roof decking, welding, bolting and other activities.

The memorandum said that steel erection does not include the erection of steel members such as lintels, stairs, railings, curtainwalls, windows, architectural metal work, column covers, catwalks, and similar non-skeletal items or the placement of reinforcing rods in structures.

The construction fall protection rule and other supporting amendments became effective for all construction activity other than steel erection on Feb. 6, 1995. The rule was announced Aug. 9, 1994.

Notice of the amendment is published in the Wednesday, Aug. 2, 1995, Federal Register.