CRANE CRITIQUE
NOVEMBER 2017OSHA DEADLINE FOR CRANE OPERATORS
A monthly crane and rigging informative column for all personnel directly or indirectly involved with crane safety. Each month we will attempt to explain a different technical issue pertaining to crane operations here on Guam, addressing the sometimes overlooked or misunderstood topics by management and operators alike. By Dave Barnhouse
For those not current with the OSHA proposed crane operator ruling, mobile crane operators will need to be nationally certified by November, 2017. The verbiage comes from 1926 – Subpart CC, issued August 9, 2010. In that ruling, it was determined that crane operators were required to be nationally certified by ANSI (referring to certification by one of only a few certification agencies). At first, operators were to reach compliance by November 10, 2014, (29 C.F.R. § 1926.1427(k), but the deadline was extended to Nov. 10, 2017. Even with that extension, Guam contractors have a serious problem: Workers whose first language is not English cannot pass the comprehensive written test, and crane owners need to band together to exempt Guam and the CNMI from this ominous ruling. On paper, the ruling makes sense. The three year extension is due, in part to issues pertaining to the requirements in the standard addressing crane operator certification limited by type as well as capacity. OSHA intends to address these issues of crane operator certification and safe operation in the interim. What does this mean here on Guam regarding our crane operators? Certification limited by capacity is the last of our concerns here. What we need to deal with immediately is a means to get our operators certified in compliance with the new OSHA ruling, by capacity or type. Recently I have conducted 2 separate 40 hour crane operator exam prep classes in anticipation of the first class of CCO certified operators. The written exams are proctored at UOG, timed, and designed to slip up the most knowledgeable of the
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operators. The tests results were not pretty. One operator, whose first language is English, became CCO certified out of more than a dozen operators who participated. A second attempt a few months later produced the same results. All concerned have agreed on the reason, the language barrier. And also that Guam, CNMI, and any Micronesian Island under OSHA jurisdiction have a serious problem, that there will be no certified operators by November of 2017 unless we act now. The practical tests demonstrating their hands-on operation of the crane were challenging but most passed without too much trouble. The written tests, however, were another matter for workers who speak English as a second language. Most speak English well but read and comprehend a little less. Understand that an operator not able to read and comprehend the crane’s manual and capacity charts is not a candidate for operator certification. Most operators here on Guam can read and comprehend the manual, but not with a stopwatch toting proctor looking over his shoulder. Quoting Rick Schmidtke from Smithbridge Guam Inc.: We tried to make sense as to why our operators could not pass the exam. It was concluded that it was more a literacy issue than a practical one. Guam has a very interesting mixed and multilingual culture. English is one of the official languages spoken here, but there is a big difference in comprehension for most between reading, writing and speaking, due to their native languages such as Chamorro, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and other Micronesian island dialects used.
CONSTRUCTION NEWS BULLETIN
Mr. Danny Natividad from BME & Sons: Our crane operators are not U.S. Nationals and speak Filipino language, some native dialects in the Philippines, and some English which is commonly used language here in Guam. Our crane operators will encounter problems passing the NCCCO written test and our crane operators will not be able to continue to work after 2017. Guam crane operators are a diverse group of workers from the Philippines, Korea, China, Micronesia, India, Indonesia, Japan, and others, all of which speak English as their second language. In Mr. Edwin Chings’ words of Core Tech International, We believe the workers on Guam and the CNMI can comfortably handle the practical and physical skills and techniques of operating a crane - the problem is the written test in English which requires, within a short period of time, the understanding of many subtle meanings of words and phrases which will be easily known and recognized by a native English speaker, but not by others. Can you imagine the frustration of a person taking a test who has problems understanding the written test within a short period? Many persons who were born and raised in the U.S. have experienced the same frustration with written tests in college, so how can we expect non-native speakers to be equal to native English speakers? In speaking with the Director of Operations and Program Development of National Commission for the Certification of Crane Operators, (NCCCO) it was learned they are focusing their resources in the states on the further development
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