On June 16, 2011, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will begin to enforce a new residential fall protection compliance directive - STD 03-11-001.

On June 16, 2011, The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will begin to enforce a new residential fall protection compliance directive - STD 03-11-001. This directive eliminates and replaces earlier directives that allowed the use of slide guards. It requires all contractors performing residential construction to comply in full with 29 CFR, Part 1926.501(b)(13), the residential fall protection standard - meaning that in most cases guardrails, safety nets or personal fall arrest systems must be used on residential jobsites.

For more details on the new directive, visitwww.roofingcontractor.com, which has two articles on the upcoming changes and their implications for contractors:

www.roofingcontractor.com/Articles/Article_Rotation/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001008462

www.roofingcontractor.com/Articles/Article_Rotation/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000001008724

The NRCA is still battling to have the new directive set aside for the roofing industry, but as it stands now the changes will go into effect on June 16, and contractors can be sited for violations after that date.

OSHA has provided copies of the new compliance directive for review on its website,www.osha.gov/doc/residential fall protection.html.