The Occupational Safety and Health Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on May 21 regarding new crane operator certification requirements.
The proposed rule would permanently extend employers’ responsibilities to ensure crane operators are qualified through evaluation, not just by certification. The rule would also set minimum standards for determining operators’ qualifications, and eliminate the requirement that operators be certified based on the rated capacity of the crane they operate. Testing organizations would be allowed to issue certifications based on rated capacities, but they would not be required to.
RELATED: New Bill Focus on Colorado’s Construction Labor Shortage
OSHA estimates that the industry-wide cost of the proposed rule would be over $1.58 million per year. Evaluating crane operators would account for most of that. Documenting those evaluations would cost over $59,000 per year, while additional training could reach over $90,000, OSHA estimates.
Those costs are offset by an estimated by annual savings of between $1.83 million and $2.45 million, as ongoing annual certifications for operators to move to higher capacities would no longer be required. Those savings are on top of a one-time cost saving of $25.5 million resulting from
If passed, the proposed rule would amend Section 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 1926 subpart CC.
OSHA is soliciting comments on the proposed rule until June 20. Interested parties may submit comments electronically at regulations.gov or by mail. Click here for full instructions about how to submit comments, as well as the full text of the proposed rule.
