The Secretary of Labor adopted Construction Standards, which had been issued under the Construction Safety Act in 29 CFR Part 1518, as OSHA standards in accordance with section 6(a) of the OSH Act (36 FR 10466, May 29, 1971). The Safety and Health Regulations for Construction were redesignated as Part 1926 later in 1971 (36 FR 25232, December 30, 1971).
OSHA adopted several regulations related to fall protection under section 6(a) of the OSH Act. On November 25, 1986, OSHA proposed to revise virtually all of the fall protection provisions of the construction industry standards and to consolidate those requirements, except where specifically provided otherwise, in subpart M [51 FR 42718]. On August 5, 1992, OSHA reopened the rulemaking record (57 FR 34656) to consider new information submitted by the Precast/Prestressed Concrete Institute (PCI) regarding the fall protection needs of employees engaged in precast concrete construction. On March 29, 1993, the agency again reopened the rulemaking record (58 FR 16515) to provide additional time for the precast concrete construction industry to comment on the issues raised in the August 5, 1992, notice. The final rule, 29 CFR Part 1926, Subpart M, which became effective on February 6, 1995, contains general fall protection requirements for construction work. Additional fall protection requirements can be found throughout Part 1926.