OSHA Officially Delays Crane Certification Until 2017 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has officially delayed the implementation of crane certification requirements impacting the sign and visual communications industry. When the original rule was first announced in 2010, all crane operators were required to be certified by November 10th, 2014. As of this new announcement, the date of compliance has been pushed back three years to November 10th, 2017. The announcement was made last week and can be found here.
As the rule indicates, OSHA intends to address the issues of crane operator certification and safe operation in the interim period.
ISA and other observers of this crane certification issue have been expecting this announcement from OSHA for some time. During meetings and hearings on this issue, it became clear that technical barriers existed that would prevent the full implementation of the rule by the 2014 deadline. This new development was necessary in order to address these problems.
Over the past few years, ISA has been following closely the development of the crane certification rule. Since 2009, ISA staff has worked on behalf of members and the industry on this issue by meeting with government agencies, attended and testified at hearings, meeting with the assistant secretary of labor, and generally been very vocal over our concerns regarding the implementation and impacts of this rule on the sign and visual communications industry. ISA has stayed in constant contact with OSHA and industry partners to make sure ISA members’ interests were represented.
Over the next three years, OSHA will continue to address operator qualification requirements for the cranes standards including the role of operator certification. For more information, you can email david.hickey@signs.org.
For more information about crane licensing visit the NSSA website at www.nssasign.org.