Why Our Focus on Safety Compels AGC to Push Back Against OSHA’s Walkaround Rule

Re-Published With Permission From Construction News and Review

By Jeff Shoaf | CEO, The Associated General Contractors of America

Few fields of work pose as many safety challenges – physically and mentally – as construction. That makes the task of keeping everyone safe that much more important. The need to better protect workers is what motivated AGC of America to become signature supporters of Construction Safety Week.

The week offers our industry an opportunity to highlight its commitment to workplace safety and to reinforce the safety lessons your firms focus on yearlong. As signature supporters, we work to encourage as many members as possible to hold safety week stand-downs and events. And we publicize your efforts to a much-broader audience.

Our efforts go far beyond supporting safety week, however. For example, we offer training on fall protection and are working with manufacturers to ensure they offer protective equipment for all sizes and body types. We are partnering with the OSHA to improve trench safety. And we connect safety professionals across the industry to make sure they can learn from each other and put in place successful safety programs.

We are just as focused on supporting the mental health of all construction professionals. This includes creating and sharing a vast library of mental health resources. And we are launching a new education program to help construction professionals identify and address possible mental health issues.

We also continue to push federal, state and local officials to do far more to strengthen work zone safety laws and enforcement. In 2024, we and our partners at HCSS released new work zone safety data showing how often cars crash into project sites. The numbers are staggering. We are pushing federal officials to collect better data on work zone crashes. And we are working with AGC chapters to get tougher penalties and better work zone education for drivers on the books.

Our commitment to safety compels us to push back when the government takes steps to undermine worker protections. The latest threat, ironically, comes from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA for short. Last spring, AGC joined a legal challenge against the agency’s so-called “Walkaround” rule. The rule would force contractors to let potentially anyone – regardless of safety training, construction experience or intent – to accompany an OSHA inspector on a jobsite. Our dispute with OSHA is about keeping the agency from doing something that we believe will undermine the safety of our industry’s workers.

We are asking the court to declare the rule unlawful, vacate it and stop OSHA from enforcing it. We and our co-plaintiffs argue that this rule overturns more than 50 years of precedent, which limited such walkarounds to employee representatives, with very limited exceptions. AGC pointed out the absence of a formal process for identifying employee representatives, which could leave employers uninformed and unable to dispute selections. We also noted that the rule is unclear about how compliance safety and health officers can verify the qualifications of these representatives. And we noted that the presence of third-party representatives poses risks to the protection of confidential documents, trade secrets and other sensitive information. Finally, we make it clear that the new rule increases risk and liability in high-risk environments like construction sites, where inexperienced individuals might gain access to job sites because of the way the rule is written.

The men and women of the construction industry do amazing work. Every day they get up earlier than anyone else, put their boots on and build the things our society and our economy rely upon. Their craft and their skills are important. And so are they. We owe it to them to do everything we can to make sure they get home safe and healthy, every day.