Construction work often requires working at substantial heights. Scaffolding allows employees to safely work at heights from a stable platform and with less fatigue than working from a ladder. However, working from scaffolding has its hazards. OSHA estimates there are over 60 deaths each year resulting from falls from scaffolding. That’s one reason why OSHA has a specific standard (29 CFR 1926 Subpart L) to protect employees using scaffolding.
OSHA often cites employers for lack of fall protection for workers on scaffolding. The failure to provide proper fall protection for employees on scaffolding was one of OSHA’s top 10 most frequently cited serious violations in construction in 2014. Ranking seventh on the top 10 list, there were 878 serious violations of the scaffolding fall protection standard, specifically for violating 1926.451(g)(1).
Falls from scaffolds can occur for various reasons, i.e., the scaffold is set up improperly and collapses, tips over due to not being tied or braced, is overloaded, isn’t fully planked, doesn’t have adequate guardrails or isn’t inspected properly.
OSHA requires when employees are on a scaffold platform over 10 feet above a lower level, they must be protected from falling by some type of fall protection. The type of fall protection required depends on the type of scaffold being used. The fall protection can be guardrails, a personal fall arrest system or both. When workers are erecting or dismantling scaffolds, the company competent person for scaffolding must determine the feasibility and safety of providing fall protection. Before you use scaffolding, ask yourself these questions:
- Are your scaffolds designed by a qualified person and constructed and loaded according to that design?
- Is your scaffold platform fully planked or decked between the front uprights and the guardrail supports?
- If you are using supported scaffolds with a height to base width ratio of over 4-to-1, is the scaffolding restrained from tipping by guying, tying, bracing or equivalent means?
- If you are using supported scaffolds, do the poles, legs, posts, frames and uprights bear on base plates and mud sills or other adequate firm foundations?
- If you are using supported scaffolds, are the poles, legs, posts, frames and uprights plumb and braced to prevent swaying and displacement?
- For suspension scaffolds, do the scaffolding support devices, outrigger beams, counterweights, tiebacks, winding drums hoists, wire rope and wire rope clips meet the criteria for loading, structural composition and correct placement?
- Before using the suspension scaffold, have direct connections been evaluated by a competent person who has confirmed, based on the evaluation, the supporting surfaces are capable of supporting the loads to be imposed?
- Are you meeting the criteria for employee access when erecting or dismantling supported scaffolds?
- Are your scaffolds and scaffold components inspected for visible defects by a competent person before each work shift and after each occurrence that could affect a scaffold’s structural integrity?
- Are you supplying fall protection to employees when it is needed (10-foot rule)?
- Do you have a competent person determining the feasibility and safety of providing fall protection for employees erecting or dismantling supported scaffolds? • Do you provide employees with protection from falling objects through the installation of toeboards, screens or guardrail systems, or through the erection of debris nets, catch platforms or canopy structures?
- Do you have a person qualified in the subject matter training each employee who performs work while on a scaffold?
- Do you have a competent person training each employee who is involved in erecting, disassembling, moving, operating, repairing, maintaining or inspecting a scaffold to recognize any hazards associated with the work in question?
If you answered “yes” to all of these questions, you have taken the first step in ensuring your scaffold is safe to use. Do not let your employees become an OSHA statistic. Follow the rules and your workers will thank you for it!
For more information, visit www.JJKeller.com or call (877) 564-2333.
