Regulation re: minor students in MEWPs

Colin

Well-Known Member
Can anybody refer me to a regulation in the US (or state of CT) prohibiting students under 18 from being operators or passengers in a MEWP? There's Fair Labor Standards for youth employees, but I'm looking at somebody wanting to put students, not employees, in this situation. @egilson1 maybe?
 
I wasn’t allowed in my high school’s Genie lift, but my understanding was that was about insurance and liability issues with me being a student.

At the time I was miffed but 15 years later I get it.
 
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Can anybody refer me to a regulation in the US (or state of CT) prohibiting students under 18 from being operators or passengers in a MEWP? There's Fair Labor Standards for youth employees, but I'm looking at somebody wanting to put students, not employees, in this situation. @egilson1 maybe?
You won't find it. They aren't working so its really up to whomever is insuring the school as to what they can and can not do. OSHA has nothing to do with it. When I was 14 I coudn't work construction because they think I'd chop my hand off, but we let 13 year olds run circ saws in shop class.... and I certainly did a lot of chop saw running at school when I was 15.

Whats your angle here? Are you being told students can't go up or you trying to keep students from going up?
 
You won't find it. They aren't working so its really up to whomever is insuring the school as to what they can and can not do. OSHA has nothing to do with it. When I was 14 I coudn't work construction because they think I'd chop my hand off, but we let 13 year olds run circ saws in shop class.... and I certainly did a lot of chop saw running at school when I was 15.

Whats your angle here? Are you being told students can't go up or you trying to keep students from going up?
Yeah I sort of expected nothing but the insurance issue, but want to send along all the info out there to the higher powers. Situation is, the AWP disappeared from my building recently, so I asked our facilities head where he took it and found out that a group of HS students doing a mural in another building had asked for it and facilities just brought it over and was going to I guess show them the up button and walk away. So I put the brakes on that, and now am trying to help admin navigate whether or not they should try to "do it right" with training. First thing I said was talk to our insurer. Next thing I said was FLSA prohibits youth employees in lifts (I don't believe there's an apprentice exception like for woodworking tools) so that might be a best practice that makes the insurer say no way. And then I said I'd investigate whether there's anything else at play. If not, and insurance is a go, and they can get a trainer to do the training, then I like supervised student use a lot more than I like them climbing ladders/scaffold frames.
 
Primary issue is insurance. Granted, when I was in HS I was in lifts all the time, mostly in pro venues. Schools on the other hand, no bueno. We did it anyway at times but that was only until eventually the higher ups realized what was going on. Most schools hardly want students on catwalks, much less in lifts. Little bit entertaining how many meetings I'm in planning new HS's and the district staff say there will never be students on catwalks or loading bridges, and I usually remark, "they may say that, but it's going to happen anyway."

Some irony, that lifts are generally less dangerous than ladders, but that's how it goes.

That said -- once students turned 18 and so long as they had the appropriate training, everything was kosher.
 
Primary issue is insurance. Granted, when I was in HS I was in lifts all the time, mostly in pro venues. Schools on the other hand, no bueno. We did it anyway at times but that was only until eventually the higher ups realized what was going on. Most schools hardly want students on catwalks, much less in lifts. Little bit entertaining how many meetings I'm in planning new HS's and the district staff say there will never be students on catwalks or loading bridges, and I usually remark, "they may say that, but it's going to happen anyway."

Some irony, that lifts are generally less dangerous than ladders, but that's how it goes.

That said -- once students turned 18 and so long as they had the appropriate training, everything was kosher.
Oh yeah I did all sorts of ignorant unholy things as a high schooler zooming around in a pre- outrigger interlock model in the 90s, and four of us (probably totalling 400lbs soaking wet) would put it on a super-straddle and somehow muscle it up and down maybe 30 steps to the FOH pipe, all with adult encouragement. And that's sort of how a lot of things had been for 20yrs before I showed up at my current workplace. It's a performing arts magnet, so there's no fretting about students at heights; that's why they're there. But the safety culture is a work in progress...
 
OSHA's opinion on age can be found here. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/1999-11-10-2

Again as others have stated that only applies if the employer employee relationship exists. It's doesn't with students (excluding work study).

Now my own opinion is why on earth do educational institutions run away from teaching their students the skills necessary to excel in their chosen field? How many auto mechanics received their training in HS, both tech/voc or otherwise. Or carpenters? or chefs?

I think we do a disservice by not TEACHING students about risk assessment and how to work safely and efficiently. Not he job training works, but is often abridged due to time and financial constraints.

I think with proper training AND supervision teenagers should be allowed to operate some MEWPS.
 
OSHA's opinion on age can be found here. https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/1999-11-10-2

Again as others have stated that only applies if the employer employee relationship exists. It's doesn't with students (excluding work study).

Now my own opinion is why on earth do educational institutions run away from teaching their students the skills necessary to excel in their chosen field? How many auto mechanics received their training in HS, both tech/voc or otherwise. Or carpenters? or chefs?

I think we do a disservice by not TEACHING students about risk assessment and how to work safely and efficiently. Not he job training works, but is often abridged due to time and financial constraints.

I think with proper training AND supervision teenagers should be allowed to operate some MEWPS.
Me too. And I think a learning opportunity is where we're heading with this issue, though I'm not sure about in time for this student's mural project. Had a good conversation in the afternoon with the principal, who gave go-ahead to add (and fund) lift training to curriculum, and will follow up with "corporate" (same org runs several magnets and other campuses) about getting on same page with insurance and Facilities. We serve a largely low-income and otherwise challenged community where most students' learning styles favor hands-on work, and most need/want to be workforce (vs college) ready by or before graduation. The leadership seems committed to that goal, and listens when I explain what it needs, so that's cool.

Yes to teaching risk assessment early and often. Just finished 3 weeks on the topic with my 9th and 10th graders. One of the example safety plans we looked at was a MEWP plan. Spent a day with the Station Club, and discussing cognitive biases, and lots of talking about how we can do a lot of "dangerous" stuff by controlling risks to a level we accept. Practiced the 5 steps, and summative assessment was each student writing a risk assessment and safety plan for a tool, process or space they're familiar with which affects production in our facility. Gives them skills for long healthy careers, and confidence in approaching big physical work that our current HS generation seems almost universally terrified of.
 
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