Walking/working surfaces rule will be finalized before January, David Michaels says

Anaheim, CA – OSHA’s final rule on walking/working surfaces to address slips, trips and falls in the workplace soon could be a reality, agency administrator David Michaels said Tuesday during a roundtable discussion at the 2016 NSC Congress & Expo.

“I believe it will be out while I am still at OSHA,” said Michaels, the longest-serving OSHA administrator, who will step down from the agency in January after more than seven years to return to his role as professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University in Washington.

The final rule would establish requirements for personal fall protection systems and revise existing walking/working surface standards by including new technology and methods that aim to reduce fall-related injuries and fatalities.

OSHA first issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the rule in 1990. A second notice followed in 2010.

“This is one of the OSHA standards that people have worked on for decades,” Michaels said. “I will be very proud when we issue a final regulation on this. Our Standards and Guidance group has worked hard on this for quite a few years.”