/>iThe Industrial Truck Association (ITA) has renewed an alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that is designed to reduce workplace incidents, such as tip-overs and struck by hazards, associated with powered industrial trucks.
The renewal, signed in January 2016, commits the two organizations to providing ITA members and others in the transportation and general industries with information, guidance, and access to training resources to help them protect the health and safety of workers, as well as promote a better understanding of workers’ rights and employers’ responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.
The specific goals of the ITA-OSHA pact are to raise awareness of OSHA’s rulemaking and enforcement initiatives, provide outreach and communication, and promote training and education. In addition to raising awareness of powered industrial truck hazards, ITA has agreed to promote OSHA’s fall prevention and heat campaigns. During the five-year life of the agreement, the association also will deliver at least three best practice training seminars annually to OSHA staff on powered industrial truck safety and on updated design and construction requirements under ANSI B56.1-2012, a national consensus standard on safety standard for low lift and high lift trucks.
ITA represents industrial truck manufacturers and suppliers of component parts and accessories. Its membership includes manufacturers of lift trucks, tow tractors, rough terrain vehicles, hand-pallet trucks, and automated guided vehicles. ITA and OSHA first agreed to work together in 2004. The latest renewal is the third signed between the two organizations since then. Under OSHA’s Alliance Program, participants do not receive exemptions from OSHA inspections or any other enforcement benefits.
In other OSHA news, the agency announced it will hold a day-long roundtable discussion on its updated draft Safety and Health Program Management Guidelines on March 10, 2016, at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. Attendees must register by March 3. Participants may choose from several levels of participation in the discussion, which will cover the guidelines in general, plus key issues made in public comments. The comment period closes on February 22. The guidelines, first published in 1989, are being updated to reflect changes in the workplace and modern safety practices.
