General Industry or Construction: Which OSHA Standards Apply to Your Work?

OSHA has one set of standards that most people call "general industry" (29 CFR Part 1910) and another set for construction (29 CFR Part 1926). Which set applies does not turn on what your company calls itself. It turns on the work your employees are doing, and the regulations say how to tell. Sort a job into the wrong part and you build your training and programs around the wrong rules.

Construction work has a one-sentence definition

Here is the definition, exactly as written:

"For purposes of this section, Construction work means work for construction, alteration, and/or repair, including painting and decorating." (1910.12(b))

The same paragraph then says: "See discussion of these terms in § 1926.13 of this title." (1910.12(b)). The construction standards repeat the definition word for word in their own definitions section (1926.32(g)).

There is one addition. For the purposes of Part 1910, to the extent it is not already included in that definition, "construction work" includes "the erection of new electric transmission and distribution lines and equipment, and the alteration, conversion, and improvement of the existing transmission and distribution lines and equipment." (1910.12(d))

The definition does not name trades or industries. It names kinds of work.

Part 1926 follows the employee who is doing construction work

The standards in Part 1926 "are adopted as occupational safety and health standards under section 6 of the Act and shall apply, according to the provisions thereof, to every employment and place of employment of every employee engaged in construction work." (1910.12(a))

Each employer must protect the employment and places of employment of each of its employees engaged in construction work by complying with the appropriate standards (1910.12(a)).

The same section says which pieces of Part 1926 are applied: "the standards (substantive rules) published in subpart C and the following subparts of part 1926 of this chapter are applied." It does not incorporate subparts A and B of Part 1926 (1910.12(c)).

Why Part 1926's own scope statement talks about contracts

Part 1926 opens by saying that it "sets forth the safety and health standards promulgated by the Secretary of Labor under section 107 of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act." (1926.1(a)) Subpart B then describes section 107 as covering certain contracts "for construction, alteration, and/or repair, including painting and decorating" (1926.10(a)). That is the phrase the definition uses.

Section 1910.12 explains how to read this. Subparts A and B of Part 1926 "have pertinence only to the application of section 107 of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (the Construction Safety Act)." The Act that 1910.12 applies establishes duties for employers "which are not dependent for their application upon any contractual relationship with the Federal Government or upon any form of Federal financial assistance." (1910.12(c))

In plain terms: the Part 1926 standards apply to every employee engaged in construction work, federal contract or not (1910.12(a), 1910.12(c)).

The same employer can be under both parts

Because 1910.12(a) is written around "every employee engaged in construction work," one employer can have some employees under Part 1926 and others who are not, at the same site on the same day.

Take a manufacturing plant. On most days its employees run production. Then the company has a crew do work for the alteration of part of the building, followed by painting. "Alteration" and "painting" are both words in the definition (1910.12(b)). For each employee engaged in that work, the Part 1926 standards apply according to their provisions, and the employer must comply with the appropriate ones (1910.12(a)). The employees still running production are not doing work the definition describes, so 1910.12(a) does not point their work to Part 1926.

One caution. The definition does not say where routine upkeep ends and "repair" begins, and this article does not draw that line either.

When a specific standard and a general standard both seem to fit

If a particular standard is specifically applicable to "a condition, practice, means, method, operation, or process," it prevails over any different general standard that might otherwise apply to the same thing (1910.5(c)(1)).

On the other hand, any standard applies according to its terms to any employment and place of employment in any industry, even though particular standards are also prescribed for that industry, "to the extent that none of such particular standards applies." (1910.5(c)(2)) The paragraph names subpart B of Part 1910, where 1910.12 sits, as one place such particular standards are prescribed (1910.5(c)(2)).

The rule gives its own illustration: the general noise standard in 1910.95 applies to pulp, paper, and paperboard mills covered by 1910.261 (1910.5(c)(2)). Paragraph (c)(1) is written at the level of the "condition, practice, means, method, operation, or process," and paragraph (c)(2) applies a standard "to the extent that" no particular standard applies, so the comparison is made one condition or operation at a time, not one whole part against another.

How to sort your own work

List the tasks your employees perform, not just your industry. Coverage follows the employee engaged in construction work (1910.12(a)).
For each task, ask whether it is work for construction, alteration, and/or repair, including painting and decorating (1910.12(b)).
If it is, go to subpart C and the following subparts of Part 1926 (1910.12(c)). A federal contract is not required (1910.12(c)).
Look for a standard that specifically covers the condition or operation. It prevails over a different general standard (1910.5(c)(1)). Where no particular standard applies, check whether another standard applies according to its terms (1910.5(c)(2)).

Source

All sources are regulation text published at osha.gov, not guidance: 29 CFR 1910.12, 1910.5, 1926.1, 1926.10, and 1926.32. The regulation itself always controls. States that run their own OSHA-approved State Plans may have additional or stricter rules.