Training Series Part II: General Safety and Health Provisions

OSHA Standard: 1926.20 – Accident Prevention Responsibilities

Occurrence/Frequency: FREQUENT and REGULAR inspections of the job site, materials, and equipment to be made by COMPETENT person.

Style of Program: Written program that is initiated and maintained.

Location: N/A

Employer Responsibilities: This standard has several employer requirements for job site inspections:

1. Training: The employer is required to train employees on hazards and related matters. The employer must train each affected employee in the manner required by the standard, and each failure to train an employee may be considered a separate violation.
2. Hazard Identification: The employees need to capable of identifying existing hazards and predictable hazards in the surroundings or working conditions which are unsanitary, hazardous, or dangerous to employees.
3. Authorization: Employers need to designate an employee that has authorization to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate hazards.
4. Qualified: The employer shall permit only those employees qualified by training or experience to operate equipment and machinery.

Employee Responsibilities:

1. Training: The employee needs to ensure that they are trained on the task they are assigned.
2. Hazard Identification/Authorization: Employees need to identify and predict the hazards and take prompt correct measures to eliminate them.
3. Authorization: Use their authority to take prompt corrective measures to eliminate hazards.
4. Qualified: Employees need to ensure they are qualified to operate equipment and machinery.

Summary: This is the standard that is regularly cited under OSHA, mainly for failure to perform frequent and regular jobsite inspections. The core principle of this standard is training hazard identification, authorization, and qualification. This standard also brings up the topic of equipment training. Unlike the power industrial truck, earth moving equipment does not have a direct standard. However, this is the standard that OSHA uses to cite companies that do not properly train their employees. One way to verify if you employees have been trained is to use to STAC system to run reports on what current training your employees have.