Contractors face new regulations in fall protection for employees

Changing standards for fall protection in residential construction are being enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Under the safety guidelines, people working six feet or more above lower levels must be protected by conventional fall protection methods, such as guardrail systems.

Previously, contractors had been able to use...

alternative safety methods under the Interim Fall Protection Compliance Guidelines for Residential Construction (STD 03-00-001).

The latest directive rescinded STD 03-00-001, meaning residential construction employers must again comply with conventional fall protection standards under 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(13), unless they can prove those measures will not work or will pose a greater danger.

The directive rescinding the interim standards was issued on June 16. For 90 days after that, contractors were informed if they were not in compliance, but not penalized. Starting Thursday, contractors who are not in compliance are subject to citation and penalties, including fines.

According to OSHA, the interim standards were issued due to concerns from the residential construction industry about complying with 1926.501(b)(13). Since fatalities from falls continued to be high in residential construction, the agency said, those standards were rescinded.

Appropriate fall protection methods include guardrail systems, safety net systems and personal fall arrest systems (such as a body harness).

For more information, visit www.osha.gov.

LWC responds

Louisiana Workforce Commission Executive Director Curt Eysink hit back at reports from Washington that the state is among the worst offenders for unemployment fraud.

White House officials announced an initiative this week to cut down on waste and fraud in Medicaid and unemployment.

The Department of Labor identified six states where unemployment fraud is particularly bad -- Louisiana, Virginia, Indiana, Colorado, Washington and Arizona. According to the Department of Labor, improper payments of unemployment benefits have run as high as 43 percent in Louisiana and Indiana.

Eysink, though, challenged the figures from Washington. He said about 47 percent of the improper payments reported in Louisiana were not improper at all. They were reported as such, he said, because of an error where the state database did not recognize those people had registered with LWC and were actively looking for work.

He also touted Louisiana's crackdown on fraud that he said has cut improper payments in the state by half.

"Our progress since 2010 alone makes us one of the most improved states in the country," Eysink said. "Although our error rate still is not where we want it to be, Louisiana's overall sound management of its unemployment insurance program has contributed to the state having the third-strongest unemployment trust fund and one of the lowest unemployment insurance tax rates in the country. I hope the errors in the federal reports from Washington, D.C., don't cause those facts to be overlooked."