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NCCCO NEWS
FAQs address
OSHA’s rule
reopening plans
To clarify the issues surrounding OSHA’s recent decision to
reopen the crane rule, NCCCO has issued a “Top Ten” list
of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers.
“NCCCO is pleased to provide this guidance as a public
service,” said NCCCO Executive Director Graham Brent.
“Based on the questions we have received already, it’s
clear there is substantial confusion as to why OSHA is
extending the deadline, and to what purpose.”
Publication of the Top Ten list was an attempt to “calm fears, ease frustration and
contribute to a better understanding of OSHA’s motives,” Brent said.
The Top Ten FAQs can be accessed at the OSHA Rule Reopening Resource Center on
NCCCO’s website or downloaded by going to
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JULY 2013
ACT
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The three-year
window will give us time
to re-examine the issue of
certifying by capacity and
the proper way to ensure
crane operators are
qualified.
James Maddux, Director,
OSHA Directorate of Construction.
OSHA urged to act swiftly
on Crane Rule reopening
I
n the wake of the May announcement
by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) to extend
the compliance date for its crane operator
certification requirements, the National
Commission for the Certification of Crane
Operators (NCCCO) has urged OSHA to
pursue the necessary rulemaking without
further delay.
OSHA announced May 22 that it
was planning to postpone the effective
date of its crane operator certification
requirements by three years to November
10, 2017. The three-year window would
provide time, Jim Maddux, Director of
the Directorate of Construction said,
for OSHA “to re-examine the issue of
certifying by capacity, and the proper way
to ensure crane operators are qualified.”
Speaking at a meeting of the Advisory
Committee on Construction Safety and
Health (ACCSH) in Washington, DC,
May 23, Maddux reported that OSHA had
put a team in place that had been tasked
with ensuring that “we have a good crane
standard to ensure crane safety.”
While NCCCO “reluctantly” supported
OSHA’s action, it urged the agency to
act without further delay, said NCCCO
Executive Director Graham Brent, in
testimony before ACCSH.
“Although it is regrettable that it has
taken OSHA so long to recognize that
the industry has serious problems with
the agency’s stance on issues such as
certifying by capacity and the meaning
of certification, it is a vindication of the
efforts of concerned industry stakeholders
over the past 18 months to raise awareness
on these matters that OSHA has, finally,
taken notice,” Brent said.
‘‘
‘‘
CCO-certified
operators can rest
assured that their
certifications are, and
will remain, valid and fully
recognized by state and
federal government, and
the industry at large.
Graham Brent, Executive Director, NCCCO.
“We strongly urge OSHA to pursue
the second phase of this initiative – the
development of proposed rulemaking
– with all haste,” he said. “An extension
of the deadline, already unpopular with
many sectors of industry – is worthless
without immediate and substantive action
to solicit industry comments that will
result in a resolution accurately reflecting
the intent of the industry group – C-DAC
– that OSHA itself assembled to develop
this rule.”
Members of the original committee
established by OSHA – the Cranes and
Derricks Advisory Committee
or C-DAC committee – have
repeatedly said it was not their
intent to require operators to be
certified by capacity in the way
OSHA has since viewed it. Testimony
from industry representatives at
OSHA’s Stakeholder Meetings in April
overwhelmingly confirmed the lack
of support for OSHA’s position on this
issue.
“NCCCO has stayed faithful to the
wishes of industry and preserved
its certification programs in the
format that, over the last 17 years, has
been proven to save lives and reduce
accidents,” Brent said. He noted that
CCO certification was “fully compliant”
with the C-DAC committee’s intent to
provide an effective means of ensuring
crane operators are certified.
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