Complying with OSHA’s Training Standard
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specifically, that’s 29 CFR 1910.178, Powered Industrial Truck
Operator Training
(PITOT) standard. Basically, PITOT spells out how, when and where your powered
industrial truck operators must be trained.
PITOT went
into effect December 1, 1999, so compliance is still in its infancy. All new
OSHA regulations need time for interpretation and dissemination — as well
as incorporation into the compliance rhythm. That’s happening.
“I
know that there are a few companies that OSHA inspectors are looking at real
hard,” says Jim Shephard, president of Shephard’s Industrial
Training Systems Inc. At this point, observes Shephard, OSHA’s hard looks
are reserved for cases involving a fatality or a serious accident.
However,
a fatality or serious accident needn’t involve a lift truck or other
powered industrial equipment to trigger an OSHA inspector’s questions
about PITOT compliance.
“In
practically every instance where I’m involved in an investigation, they
ask for operator training documentation as part of their routine,” says
Earl M. “Chip” Jones, attorney at law for the firm of Littler
Mendelson. The investigation may be triggered by an accident involving, say,
lockout/tagout, but the inspectors still want to know about industrial truck
training. “They want to see that program when they walk in the
door,” Jones says.
One
OSHA inspector told me, “We’re enforcing that standard like any
other. When we inspect the facility, that’s one thing we check for,
operator competency.” The Powered Industrial Truck Operator Training
standard has been added to the list of documents an inspector inquires about in
any routine investigation.
The important factor in operator
training is the existence of the standard, the inspector contends.
“We have cited the standard more,” he says. “We have criteria
now. Before it was just ‘You will have training.’ Now the employer
has to certify somebody to do the training. You can’t even hire an
experienced operator without first checking him out on the standard’s requirements.”
The question is, how far into the PITOT regulation does an
OSHA inspector take his investigation? When the accident or fatality does not
involve a powered industrial truck, the inspector is not likely to go behind
the training documents and interview the employees, Chip Jones recalls.
Jim
Shephard worries whether all training programs comply with PITOT’s
requirements: Training shall consist of a combination of formal instruction
(e.g., lecture, discussion, interactive computer learning, videotape, written
material), practical training (demonstrations performed by the trainer and
practical exercises performed by the trainee) and evaluation of the
operator’s performance in the workplace.
“I
think there is an interpretation of the regulation that a lot of people have
missed,” Shephard says. “Companies have been sold on the videotape
and the one-hour session; they feel that the program they bought meets the OSHA
requirements. These programs fall short, but their sponsors don’t tell
the company.”
Small
companies often rely on local OSHA inspectors to check out training services.
“Some
company with two or three lift trucks and an operator who has been on the job
for 15 years will be told that the employer has to buy a video for $150 in
order to comply with the standard,” says the inspector.
“There’s a lot of that going on.”
Sometimes
an employer falls for the pitch. According to the inspector, “They buy
the video, put it on the shelf and think they’re in compliance.
We’ll come in and they say, ‘Here’s my video.’ And
it’s still in the wrapper.”
Same
with compliance with PITOT: It’s still in the wrapper. But your company
is in trouble if the inspectors have to unwrap the standard for a violation.
Bernie
Knill
contributing
editor
bernknill@aol.com
