The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is encouraging construction industry employers and workers across the nation to take part in its 11th annual National Stand-Down to Prevent Falls in Construction from May 6-10. The event focuses attention on preventing the industry’s leading cause of worker deaths.
The national stand-down recommends employers and workers pause voluntarily during the workday for safety demonstrations, hazard recognition and fall prevention training, and “tool-box” talks about hazards, protective methods and their company’s safety policies, goals and expectations. This year, OSHA is partnering with Construction Safety Week, an organization of more than 70 national and global construction firms, to enlist employers in the U.S. to create the largest industry-wide construction stand-down ever held.
Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Doug Parker will observe the 2024 stand-down at an event on Washington’s National Mall on May 8.
“In 2022, falls from elevation claimed the lives of 365 construction workers,” said Parker. “This real and persistent hazard requires OSHA to use all available tools, including working with construction employers on how to identify and better control fall-related hazards and embrace safety and health as a core value on their worksites.”
OSHA developed the national safety stand-down as part of the fall prevention campaign and in partnership with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Occupational Research Agenda and The Center for Construction Research and Training. Since 2014, this effort has helped train more than 10 million workers on fall prevention.