The website Businessinsurance the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration will craft a separate set of safety and health program management guidelines for the construction industry, based on feedback on a proposed update to its voluntary guidelines.

The agency is in the process of revising its proposed update to its voluntary guidelines, first published in 1989, to help employers establish health and safety management plans at their workplaces. A final version is scheduled for release in June.

“One of the issues that was identified as a result of the public comments was that both employers and workers in the construction industry said to us that what we're planning on doing is not going to work for them,” Andy Levinson, deputy director of OSHA's Directorate of Standards & Guidance, said at a public comment meeting in Washington on Thursday.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommended adding construction-relevant language to the draft guidelines or developing an alternate document focusing on issues specific to the construction sector because the industry has complex characteristics, including high employee turnover, many short-term or temporary jobs, and multiemployer worksites with many small businesses, according to public comments filed by Washington-based NIOSH on Feb. 18.

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