The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced on Friday that it has extended the comment period regarding a proposed crane operator certification rule. Stakeholders now have until July 5 to weigh in on the rule.
OSHA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on May 21 regarding new crane operator certification requirements.
[Related: OSHA issues proposed crane safety rule]
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.
Originally, industry stakeholders had until June 20 to submit a comment. OSHA said in a statement that it was extending the comment period to give stakeholders more time to review the rule. Click here for full instructions about how to submit comments, as well as the full text of the proposed rule.
[Related: DOL, OSHA make inflation adjustment to safety penalties]
Danielle Andrus was previously the managing editor for Colorado Builder, and is currently Editor for the Journal of Financial Planning.
