New OSHA Mandates

Just got finished with the OSHA 502 update. Wow, is all that I can say. If Obama follows through on his promise to strengthen OSHA, Safety Professionals should be in business for a while.

Some of the things that were touched on:

1. OSHA will be putting something like 130 new Compliance Officers out in the work place. But not only that, they will also be getting away from compliance assistance programs and leaning more towards enforcement.
2. Penalties will be going up, and when I say up, I mean really high.
3. Check out the new NEP on recordkeeping. All I can say is that you might want to hire someone just to keep accurate records.
4. OTI's will be looking for you to let them know when you are teaching a class. You will be put on a schedule that OSHA can call for at any time. Why? They may come and audit your training. If its a 10 hour, teach for 10 hours. If its a 30 hour, teach for 30 hours. Forget the breaks and lunches. This is compliments of those "unsavory" characters who got busted cheating the system for dough.
5. The new crane standard has passed. N.C. is already enforcing their own version, but expect the Fed OSHA to begin enforcing around this time next year. Ya might want to read it, its intense.
6. OSHA is leaning towards putting expiration dates on training cards, something like 5 years. Which helps us because somebody has to do the training.

I'll post more when I have all the info downloaded in my brain, there is so much to think about.