Significant developments within OSHA and ANSI safety standards will have a considerable effect on fall protection requirements throughout general industry.
A major re-write of the 29 CFR Part 1910 for walking/working surfaces and fall protection systems is in the works.
OSHA has proposed many regulatory changes. Most important to general industry is the proposed wording change of the “competent person” definition. Per OSHA law, all organizations that use fall protection must have a “competent person” who is responsible for the day-to-day use, training, inspection, monitoring and enforcement of fall protection.
The proposed OSHA law reduces some of the enforcement requirements of the competent person. The objective is to both shield the competent person, who generally tends to be a blue-collar worker or supervisor, from negligence lawsuits, and focus responsibility of enforcement more directly onto executive management and business owners.
Leaders in Washington and OSHA have made it perfectly clear that safety violations will become more punitive in the future with higher fines.