Fall Protection – Training Requirements (1926.503) was the eighth most-frequently cited agency standard in FY 2019. Construction industry employers filled the top three categories of most-cited industries for violations of this standard.

Fall protection has been the number one most frequently cited OSHA violation for several years now, which means, worksites simply are not understanding the need to keep employees upright. Employers continue to take significant unnecessary “risk” when it comes to workplace slips, trips and falls by not taking the appropriate measures in evaluating their worksites. 

When employees are performing construction work six feet or more above a lower level, you need to provide them with some type of fall protection. There is an exception for working on scaffolding — the threshold height for fall protection is ten feet. OSHA regulates falls at 1926 Subpart M.

Why do so many workers and building occupants die from falling through plastic skylights? Why do we have a BLS.gov line item on falling through skylights, average about 16-20/year work deaths in the USA through 2017?

The final rule, 29 CFR Part 1926, Subpart M, which became effective on February 6, 1995, contains general fall protection requirements for construction work.

Employers faced with these fall hazards tend to ignore the three lines of defense and go straight to personal protective equipment to solve their fall issues. What is needed is an understanding of the revised OSHA rule on walking and working surfaces and related fall protection consensus standards.