Safe Work Practices
- Employee must be provided with fall protection when on a scaffold more than 10 feet above a lower level.
- A competent person must determine the feasibility and safety of providing fall protection for employees erecting or dismantling supported scaffolds.
- Never overload the scaffold - know the maximum intended load.
- All scaffolds are to be constructed on a good foundation.
- Scaffolds should be designed by a qualified person and constructed and loaded in accordance with the approved design.
- Each platform on all working levels are to be fully planked or decked between the front uprights and the guardrail supports.
- Employee should be trained on safe work practices.
Training Requirements
Each employee who performs work while on a scaffold trained by a person qualified in the subject matter to recognize the hazards associated with the type of scaffold being used and to understand the procedures to control or minimize those hazards. The training should include the following areas:
- Nature of any electrical hazards, fall hazards and falling object hazards in the work area.
- Correct procedures for dealing with electrical hazards and for erecting, maintaining, and disassembling the fall protection systems and falling object protection systems being used.
- Proper use of the scaffold, and the proper handling of materials on the scaffold.
- Maximum intended load and the load-carrying capacities of the scaffolds used.
Each employee who is involved in erecting, disassembling, moving, operating, repairing, maintaining, or inspecting a scaffold trained by a competent person to recognize any hazards associated with the work in question. The training should include the following topics:
- Nature of scaffold hazards.
- Correct procedures for erecting, disassembling, moving, operating, repairing, inspecting, and maintaining the type of scaffold in question.
- Design criteria, maximum intended load-carrying capacity and intended use of the scaffold.
Provide retraining when there are inadequacies in the employees knowledge, changes in types of scaffold being used, or other relevant changes at the worksite that make previous training obsolete.