Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2012/11/09/2012-27209/revising-the-exemption-for-digger-derricks-in-the-cranes-and-derricks-in-construction-standard
Timestamp: 2019-08-17 21:22:51
Document Index: 369792611

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 1926', 'art 1926', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', 'art 1926', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', 'art 1926', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', 'art 1926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', 'art 1926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', 'art 1911', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091926', 'art 1911', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091926', 'art 1926', '§\u20091926', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', '§\u20091910', 'art 1926']

Federal Register :: Revising the Exemption for Digger Derricks in the Cranes and Derricks in Construction Standard
A Proposed Rule by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on 11/09/2012
67313-67319 (7 pages)
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2012-27209 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2012-27209
For copies of this Federal Register notice, news releases, and other relevant document: Electronic copies of these documents are available at OSHA's Web page at http://www.osha.gov.
OSHA requests comments on all issues related to this proposed rule, including economic, paperwork, or other regulatory impacts of this rule on the regulated community. If OSHA receives no significant adverse comment to either this proposal or the direct final rule, OSHA will publish a Federal Register document confirming the effective date of the direct final rule and withdrawing this companion proposed rule published in the “Proposed Rules” section of today's Federal Register. Such confirmation may include minor stylistic or technical changes to the document. For the purpose of judicial review, OSHA views the date of confirmation of the effective date of this direct final rule as the date of promulgation.
When the activities are exempt from subpart CC of 29 CFR part 1926, they must still comply with all other applicable construction standards, such as 29 CFR part 1926, subpart O (Motor Vehicles, Mechanized Equipment, and Marine Operations), and subpart V.[1]
When the Agency promulgated the final Cranes and Derricks in Construction rule, OSHA's primary concern about extending the digger-derrick exemption beyond pole work was that such an extension would provide employers with an incentive to use digger derricks on construction sites to perform construction tasks normally handled by cranes—tasks that are beyond the original design capabilities of a digger derrick. In discussing this concern, OSHA stated, “[T]he general lifting work done at those other worksites would be subject to this standard if done by other types of lifting equipment, and the same standards should apply as apply to that equipment . . . .” (75 FR 47925). OSHA acknowledges that revising the exemption would extend the digger-derrick exemption to include some work at substations. However, EEI indicated that the employers in the electric-utility industry limit such uses to assembly or arrangement of substation components, and that these employers use other types of cranes instead of digger derricks to perform lifting and installation work at substations (see OSHA-2012-0025-0005 for Jan. 2011 EEI letter). If OSHA finds that, should the direct final rule become a final rule, employers are using digger derricks increasingly for other tasks, the Agency may revisit this issue and adjust the exemption accordingly. The Agency also recognizes that, because the exemption only applies to work subject to the electrical-power and telecommunications standards, employers cannot use digger derricks within this exemption to perform unrelated tasks such as the construction of a building or the foundation or structural components of a substation before the installation of electric power-transmission or power-distribution equipment. A digger derrick used for this type of construction will still be subject to the requirements in 29 CFR 1926, subpart CC, and operators will have to be certified in accordance with § 1926.1427.
Third, OSHA is replacing the reference to § 1910.269 with a reference to 29 CFR part 1926, subpart V. The current exemption in § 1926.1400(c)(4) requires employers using digger derricks for work covered by subpart V to comply with the requirements in § 1910.269. However, in the 2010 final rule for Cranes and Derricks in Construction, OSHA also revised 29 CFR 1926.952(c)(2) of subpart V to require digger derricks used for the purposes exempted from subpart CC to comply with § 1910.269. Thus, although the revised exemption in this proposed rule specifies compliance with subpart V instead of § 1910.269, there is no substantive revision to digger derricks used for augering holes and handling associated materials. The primary purpose for this revision is to harmonize the § 1926.1400(c)(4) exemption with 29 CFR 1926.952(c)(2) to ensure that non-pole digger-derrick work covered by subpart V receives the same protections as pole work covered by subpart V.
As part of this harmonizing process, OSHA also is revising the corresponding provision in subpart V that requires compliance with § 1910.269 for all digger-derrick work exempted from subpart CC, including §§ 1910.269(p) (Mechanical equipment), 1910.269(a)(2) (Training), and 1910.269(l) (Working on or near exposed energized parts) (see new 29 CFR 1926.952(c)(2)). When OSHA promulgated subpart CC of 29 CFR part 1926 in 2010, the Agency also revised § 1926.952(c)(2) in subpart V of its construction standards (75 FR 48135). The revision mirrored the terminology in the digger-derrick exemption in § 1926.1400(c)(4), and required employers using digger derricks so exempted to comply with § 1910.269 (Electric power generation, transmission, and distribution). In making this revision, the Agency noted that it added specific minimum clearance-distance requirements, which are applicable to subpart V work, to the cranes and derricks in construction rules at subpart CC, and explained that it revised § 1926.952(c) to require digger derricks to comply with § 1910.269 to provide “comparable safety requirements” (75 FR 47921).
As revised, paragraph § 1926.952(c)(2) requires employers using digger derricks for subpart V work and, thus, not subject to the requirements of subpart CC of 29 CFR part 1926, to comply with the requirements in § 1910.269. OHSA also is clarifying that paragraph (c)(2) applies in addition to, not in place of, the general requirement in § 1926.952(c) that all equipment (including digger derricks) must comply with subpart O of 29 CFR part 1926. As noted in the preamble to the subpart CC final rule, OSHA currently is developing a rule that will amend subpart V to avoid inconsistencies between subpart V of the construction standards and § 1910.269 (see 70 FR 34822 (June 15, 2005)). Pending completion of that rulemaking, digger derricks excluded from subpart CC of 29 CFR 1926 will be subject to the same requirements regardless of whether employers use them for work covered by subpart V or work covered by § 1910.269, and regardless of whether employers use them for pole work or other subpart V work.
The purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act; 29 U.S.C. 651 et al.) is “to assure so far as possible every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthful working conditions and to preserve our human resources” (29 U.S.C. 651(b)). To achieve this goal, Congress authorized the Secretary of Labor to promulgate and enforce occupational safety and health standards (29 U.S.C. 654(b), 655(b)). An occupational safety or health standard is a standard that “requires conditions, or the adoption or use of one or more practices, means, methods, operations, or processes, reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment and places of employment” (29 U.S.C. 652(8)). A standard is reasonably necessary or appropriate within the meaning of Section 652(8) if it substantially reduces or eliminates significant risk (see Industrial Union Department, AFL-CIO v. American Petroleum Institute, 448 U.S. 607 (1980)).
This proposed rule does not impose any additional requirements on employers. Because OSHA previously determined that the Cranes and Derricks in Construction standard substantially reduces a significant risk (see 75 FR 47913), it is unnecessary for the Agency to make additional findings on risk for the purposes of this minor amendment to the digger-derrick exemption (see, e.g., Public Citizen Health Research Group v. Tyson, 796 F.2d 1479, 1502 n.16 (D.C. Cir. 1986) (rejecting the argument that OSHA must “find that each and every aspect of its standard eliminates a significant risk”).
In its FEA for the final rule, OSHA estimated that the total costs for NAICS 221110 would be $6.7 million ($4 million for operator certification), and the total costs for NAICS 221120 would be $18.7 million annually ($8.7 million for operator certification) (see FEA Table B-9 in the Aug. 9, 2010, FR notice). Fully exempting digger derricks from the scope of the standard also eliminates costs for other activities besides operator certification, such as inspections and power-line safety. In the original FEA, the two main cost components for an industry were the number of crane operators and the number of jobs involving cranes. The original FEA estimated that digger derricks represented 85 percent of operators, and 85 percent of jobs involving cranes. OSHA, therefore, estimates that digger derricks account for 85 percent of the costs attributed to NAICS 221110 and NAICS 221120. Applying this 85 percent factor to the total costs for the industries yields costs for digger derricks of $5.7 million per year in NAICS 221110 and $15.9 million per year in NAICS 221120, for a total of $21.6 million per year.[3]
A standard is technologically feasible when the protective measures it requires already exist, when available technology can bring the protective measures into existence, or when that technology is reasonably likely to develop (see American Textile Mfrs. Institute v. OSHA, 452 U.S. 490, 513 (1981) (ATMI); American Iron and Steel Institute v. OSHA, 939 F.2d 975, 980 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (AISI)). This proposed rule does not require any additional protective measures. In the original FEA, OSHA found the standard to be technologically feasible (75 FR 48079). OSHA concludes that this revision is feasible as well because it reduces or removes current requirements on employers.
Authority: 40 U.S.C. 3701; 29 U.S.C. 653, 655, 657; Secretary of Labor's Order Nos. 12-71 (36 FR 8754); 8-76 (41 FR 25059); 9-83 (48 FR 35736), 1-90 (55 FR 9033), 5-2007 (72 FR 31159), or 1-2012 (77 FR 3912), as applicable. Section 1926.951 also is issued under 29 CFR part 1911. 2. Amend § 1926.952 by revising paragraph (c)(2) to read as follows:
§ 1926.952
Authority: 40 U.S.C. 3701; 29 U.S.C. 653, 655, 657; and Secretary of Labor's Order No. 5-2007 (72 FR 31159) or 1-2012 (77 FR 3912), as applicable; and 29 CFR part 1911.
1. For telecommunications work, compliance with the provisions of § 1910.268 is a condition of the exemption in § 1926.400(c)(4). The scope limitations in § 1910.268(a) (such as the language stating that it does not apply to construction) are irrelevant to application of the exemption. If an employer uses a digger derrick for telecommunications construction work and does not comply with the provisions in § 1910.268, then that employer fails to qualify for the exemption in § 1926.400(c)(4). As a result, that employer must comply with all of the requirements in subpart CC of part 1926, including the operator-certification requirements in § 1926.1427. If the employer fails to comply with subpart CC, and cannot demonstrate that it complied with § 1910.268 for telecommunications work, or § 1910.269 for electric-utility work, then OSHA will cite the employer under subpart CC (not § 1910.268 or § 1910.269). If the employer demonstrates that it complies with the exemption in subpart CC, but does not comply with the separate requirements in subpart O applicable to all motorized vehicles in construction, then OSHA will cite the employer under subpart O. Note that this explanation does not suggest that OSHA is restricting its enforcement discretion on whether to issue citations at all.
2. EEI's chart does not show weights for concrete and plastic transformer pads, and EEI did not indicate that utilities use digger derricks to place those pads. If utilities do use digger derricks to lift pads, EEI's presentation indicates that the digger derricks lift the transformers separately. Because the surface area of these pads is comparable to the transformers on them, and because these pads are generally only a few hundred millimeters thick, OSHA does not believe that the pads weigh any more than transformers or poles.
3. Based on the size of digger derricks and EEI's descriptions of digger-derrick activities, OSHA understands that the vast majority of digger-derrick use for construction activity in the electric-utility industry will involve transmission and distribution work subject to subpart V of 29 CFR part 1926. Employers categorized under NAICS 221120 generally conduct electric-transmission and -distribution work. However, OSHA is including digger derricks under NAICS 221110, which is the SIC code for power generation, because some employers may be under that SIC code because their primary work is in that area, but those employers also may engage in transmission work covered by subpart V. Because the record does not indicate that employers use digger derricks for power-generation construction activities, OSHA assumes that the use of digger derricks under NAICS 221110 is for subpart V work.
[FR Doc. 2012-27209 Filed 11-8-12; 8:45 am]