The Advisory Committee on Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH) of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration met on June 20, 2017, to learn about and give recommendations on OSHA’s proposed rule to extend the enforcement date for crane operator certification requirements of the revised Crane Standard, 29 C.F.R. 1926 Subpart CC, issued in 2010.

The ACCSH advises on issues related to the construction industry. This meeting comes after construction industry officials told OSHA the originally extended deadline of November 10, 2017, did not give them enough time to comply with certain portions of the rule. The ACCSH recently hosted the public teleconference to discuss OSHA’s proposed one-year extension of the compliance deadline, to November 10, 2018.

As it stands, the current rule requires operators to be certified according to the type of crane they are using and the lifting capacity of the crane. The rule states, “An operator will be deemed qualified to operate a particular piece of equipment if the operator is certified.” There is still uncertainty on how the certification requirements are to be achieved.

OSHA previously stated an intention to issue clarifications regarding the rule, however, that has yet to be done. OSHA met with stakeholders in 2015 and is still working on proposed changes to the crane operator requirements and preamble language for a proposed rule. In seeking this new extension, OSHA indicates that due to other OSHA standards that required time and resources from both OSHA and the Solicitor of Labor’s offices, the agency was unable to complete the changes and needs an additional year. An extension of the compliance deadline to November 10, 2018, would allow OSHA to provide clarifications for compliance with the rule.