(A) Scope.
The purpose of these requirements is to provide reasonable safety for life, limb and health of employees. In cases of practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship, the Ohio bureau of workers' compensation may grant exceptions from the literal provisions of these requirements or permit the use of other devices or methods when, in the opinion of the industrial commission, equivalent protection is thereby secured.
These specific safety requirements supplement Chapter 4123:1-5 of the Administrative Code, "Specific Safety Requirements of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation Relating to all Workshops and Factories," but, to the extent of inconsistency between these and any provision of Chapter 4123:1-5 of the Administrative Code, these shall apply. These requirements are minimum requirements of an employer for the protection of such employer's employees and no others and constitute protective standards for all employees while they are engaged in washing or cleaning windows on the outside and, where working from a level ten feet or more above the floor, on the inside of buildings except employees so engaged in or on a building containing no more than two full stories above ground level in which all of the units are residential and except employees so engaged in or on a single residential unit when employed to do so by the occupant of that unit. These requirements do not apply to a window opening onto a railed fire escape balcony or other railed balconies no less than two feet wide, nor more than twelve inches below the window sill, provided that the railing is no less than forty-two inches high.
Installations or constructions built or contracted for prior to the effective date of any requirement shall be deemed to comply with the provisions of these requirements if such installations or constructions comply either with the provisions of these requirements or with the provisions of any applicable specific requirement which was in effect at the time contracted for or built.
(B) Definitions.
(1) "Anchor" means an installation near a window to which a window cleaner's safety belt is attached.
(2) "Approved" means accepted or certified by a nationally recognized testing agency, such as "Underwriters' Laboratories," "Factory Mutual Engineering Corporation" or a responsible governmental agency.
(3) "Boatswain's chair" means a seat supported by slings attached to a suspended rope, designed to accommodate one employee in a sitting position.
(4) "Factor of safety" means the ratio between the ultimate breaking strength and the working stress of the material, structure or device. For example, the term "factor of safety of four" means the materials, structure or device shall be constructed of such strength that the maximum load will be one-fourth the designed ultimate breaking load. Where other factors of safety appear, they shall apply in the same manner. The standards of the "American Society for Testing Materials" shall be used in determining the strength of material except as otherwise provided herein.
(5) "Rated load" means the combined weight of employees, tools, equipment, and other material which the working platform is designed and installed to lift.
(6) "Roof car" means a structure for the suspension of the working platform, providing for its horizontal movement to working positions.
(7) "Roof car suspended platform" means equipment to provide access to the exterior of a building consisting of a suspended power-operated working platform, a roof car, and the required operating and control devices.
(8) "Roof-powered platform" means the working platform, of a roof car suspended platform, having the raising and lowering mechanism located on a roof car.
(9) "Safety belt" or "safety harness" means a device worn around the body which, by reason of its attachment to a lanyard and lifeline or a structure, will prevent an employee from falling.
(10) "Safety harness" - see "safety belt."
(11) "Self-powered platform" means a working platform, of a roof car suspended platform, having the raising and lowering mechanism located on the working platform.
(12) "Shall" is to be construed as mandatory.
(13) "Standard guard railing" means a substantial barrier constructed in accordance with paragraph (E) of rule 4123:1-5-02 of the Administrative Code.
(14) "Substantial" means construction of such strength, of such materials, and of such workmanship that the object will withstand the wear, usage, or shock for which it is designed.
(15) "Swinging scaffold" means a power- or manually-operated platform suspended by two or more lines and independent of the building except for attachment at the roof or parapet.
(16) "Traveling cable" means a cable made up of electrical or communication conductors or both, and providing electrical connection between the working platform and the roof car or other fixed point.
(17) "Two-point suspension scaffold" means a scaffold suspended from overhead supports the platform of which is supported by stirrups or hangers at two points to permit raising or lowering.
(18) "Working platform" means the suspended structure arranged for vertical travel which provides access to the exterior of the building.
Last updated October 30, 2024 at 2:32 PM