Rope Access Window Cleaning News

Understanding the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 With its 351 pages of legal jargon, it is not difficult to see why many people are still in the dark when it comes to understanding the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 and their duties and obligations.

Safety Officers Crack Down on Height Safety Systems (Australia) - Following a number of ‘near miss accidents’ in recent years, Workplace Health and Safety Officers from the Gold Coast region have spearheaded the creation of the Height Safety industry Working Group. The group, which convened for the first time in March, includes stakeholders from industry sectors including rope access, high rise window cleaning, height safety system installation and height safety equipment manufacturing. The officers identified window cleaning companies being at the greatest risk. 

These companies abseil down the building while attached to anchor point systems on the roof. In its meeting, the group identified the need to raise awareness of best practice principles in three main areas: Correct design, installation and certification of height safety systems; Raising the standard of safety of rope access companies; and Understanding of the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 by Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs). Design, Installation and Certification No amount of training or safe procedures can save a worker from a poorly designed and installed system.

An adequate design will address four separate points: Building layout: What sections of the building will need to be accessed? Building Structure: Is the building structure capable of sustaining the potential force of a fall? Anchor Design: The position, type and number of anchors that will be required? Rescue: In the event of an incident, does the design allow for a safe rescue? Installation is equally important. In order to protect yourself as a PCBU, it is important to ensure the installation company holds a QBCC license to install height safety systems, is an authorised installer for the manufacturer of the system in question, has adequate levels of experience in installing height safety systems and holds the required insurance. 

It is also important to clarify what certification and documents you will receive once the system is installed. Raising Standards Another goal of the working group is to raise the level of professionalism and safety within the rope access industry. Through better general education and awareness, they expect consumers will demand a higher standard of safety from rope access companies, and that rather simply awarding work according to the lowest quote, PCBUs will increasingly question areas such as qualifications, competency and experience. The follow on effect will be a more professional and safety conscious industry. 

Understanding the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 With its 351 pages of legal jargon, it is not difficult to see why many people are still in the dark when it comes to understanding the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 and their duties and obligations. It is a legal requirement that a PCBU has a duty to ‘eliminate risks to health and safety’ and ‘if it is not practicable to eliminate risks…to minimise those risks.’ Yet many building owners, corporate bodies and building managers do not fully understand this non-transferable obligation. Heavy penalties apply for failing to comply with the legislation, including large fines and potential jail sentences. 

The Act goes further to state that this duty cannot be transferred to another person and that more than one person can hold the same duty at the same time (part 2, division 1, subdivision 1, section 14 & 16.) How do you ensure compliance? So as a PCBU, how do you ensure you are getting the right advice and complying with your duty? You could read all 351 pages of the Work Health & Safety Act 2011 as well as the 735 pages of the Work Health & Safety Regulation 2011. Not to mention the Standards AS1891.4 and AS4488, or you could just follow these three simple rules: Properly research which companies you will choose to obtain a quote from. Ask the experience and compliance questions at the start of this article. Choose a company which is experienced, compliant, licenced and authorised, and is also willing to help educate you about your duties and obligations. 

Hopefully, the new working group will help drive industry change and raise standards. If it helps to prompt PCBUs to ask not only if they are complying with their obligations under the Act but also whether or not they have done everything possible to help keep people safe, it will succeed in this goal.

Stefan Bright - Acceptance of Triangle Award Speech: If you do not know anything about the professional window cleaning industry, here are a few tips to get you started; Number one,we prefer the term professional window cleaner over window washer. Homeowners are window washers, professional window cleaners require up to 6 months to become skilled enough to be able to perfectly clean over a hundred windows a day. Furthermore, it takes nearly a year to become equally proficient in the safe and correct use of the equipment needed to reach the windows.

Number two, we are not daredevils, cowboys nor are we crazy because we like working at heights. We are highly skilled tradespeople who enjoy the serenity of working above the general population using our artistic abilities to create a clear view of the world for those of you who get to look at it through our canvas.

Number three, we do have standards, guidelines, regulations and training programs to follow which help to ensure our health and safety as well as the safety of the general public as they walk by and look up at us plying our trade. The reason I am standing before you today is because it was not always this way. When I started cleaning windows myself in the late 1970’ s, there were no regulations, standards, guidelines or trade associations. I was only able to learn the trade from somebody who learned it from somebody else and realizing that a lot of it was based on trial and error.

Ten years later, I traveled from central Pennsylvania to the remote western town of Lubbock, Texas where the first ever gathering of professional window cleaners from across North America took place. At this event, over 60 window cleaners simultaneously discovered that we weren’t all alone in this occupation and that sharing our trials and errors would only help us all learn more about our occupation and safety. The International Window Cleaning Association, better known as the IWCA was born and the year was 1989.

The following year, Federal OSHA held a public hearing to begin the renovation of the General Industry Walking and Working Surface regulations which includes equipment and techniques used regularly by professional window cleaners. I testified at that hearing and a few months later, the President of the IWCA asked me to join the board of directors and head up the Safety and Training Standards Committee. That committee consisted of about a dozen professional window cleaners from across the country and together we agreed that our occupation needed a consistent set of safety guidelines. I had done some research and found that on average about 7 - 9 fatalities occurred each year in the window cleaning industry.

It took over a year for us to put together and publish the Safety Guidelines for Window Cleaning. Because nothing like this had ever existed before, several thousand copies were sold. This became the catalyst for many good things to come. Shortly afterwards , I spent over a year researching two decades worth of window cleaning accident case studies in order to pinpoint causes, hazards and methods of abatement. As a result, I was able to assemble a window cleaner safety training program to educate workers with identifying the hazards of our occupation and how to avoid them. That program was first delivered in 1993 and has been given several times a year ever since. In fact, I just came home this past Sunday (5/3/2014) from delivering it in Los Angeles, California.

The IWCA has estimated that over 6,500 professional window cleaners have attended and taken part in this training. I know that these professionals have taught others in the trade so the real outreach has been significantly greater. All this knowledge, experience and education helped with the development of an American National Standard for Window Cleaning Safety in 2001 which has helped OSHA, architects, engineers, designers and builders better understand the requirements for safe building maintenance. It was our way of introducing prevention through design to the window cleaning industry.

The safety training program and industry safety standard were the core documents which contributed to the creation of the Window Cleaner Safety Certification program. This is an IWCA program that is a study course which requires taking three online tests and a proctored final exam. All these accomplishments have made a difference. Professional window cleaning is the number one trade that takes place on commercial and residential mid to high rise buildings more than any other. There are upwards of twenty thousand workers exposed to serious fall hazards every day in North America and  no longer do professional window cleaners have to guess, or practice their trade by trial and error which can have fatal consequences.

Today, there are readily available sources of knowledge, experience and safety training. The Alliance between OSHA and the IWCA has helped to expand the educational outreach. This past February, the IWCA celebrated its 25th anniversary. I was asked to compile and deliver the list of safety related milestones the organization had achieved in that time. The most significant achievement was the statistic showing a 30 percent reduction in the number of fatalities in the window cleaning industry over the last 10 year. After reading these milestones to the audience , I think several people in attendance there may have thought to nominate me for this award. I thank them for that.

The greatest reward for doing what I do is when a window cleaner shakes my hand and thanks me for helping them to learn how to think more safely about their occupation which in turn, helps them to work safer. Over the years many have even told me I’ve saved their lives or that of a co-worker. Receiving this award from the American Society of Safety Engineers is extremely gratifying. I have benefited by being a member of the ASSE since 1997 and having such an esteemed organization that is outside of the window cleaning industry recognize and distinguish my efforts is most honorable and greatly appreciated. And in saving the best for last, I could not have done any of what I have without the extreme sacrifice and support of my best friend , who happens to be my wife of over 30 years, Michele. Thank you for your patience, tolerance and acceptance of what I do, which helped me make a difference. Thankyou.

The caped crusader window washers were back on the job for a second year at an Oregon children's hospital - not fighting crime, but fighting grime. Super heroes descend the nine stories of Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel for the second year.

Superheroes lift kids' spirits at Portland hospital: Superheroes took to the skies at Randall Children’s Hospital Monday fighting not crime but grime. “Holy squeegy Batman – it’s time to get to work,” shouted a window washer decked out as the Boy Wonder. A half dozen members of the regular window washing crew donned tights and capes to delight young patients. “This is the second year for this and I’m looking forward to all the smiles and high fives,” said Batman as he was suiting up.

This year’s event included a super twist for the kids. “We’re here with free costumes for all the patients,” said Alison Hicks who runs Chelsea’s Closet in memory of her daughter. “Dress-up was her favorite thing when she was in the hospital, it gave her a reason to get up in the morning,” Hicks said, of her daughter.

Before the superheroes arrived, costumes were delivered to rooms and out-patients selected outfits from a hallway rack. “It’s so nice to have him come here for something other than chemotherapy,” said the mother of a three-year-old patient. For the dangling half dozen doing the dirty work, there was a big pay off. “It so nice to come and brighten the day of these kids who are going through tough times, and they end up brightening our day as well,” concluded Spiderman. 

Union Files Complaint In Death Of Window-Washing Custodian At UC Berkeley - A union representing service workers at the University of California, Berkeley has filed a complaint with state authorities over the death of a custodian. Forty-five-year-old Damon Frick died after falling from a lift on April 7 while washing window sills at a campus auditorium 20 feet above the ground. The complaint against the university says Frick never received proper safety training, and his supervisor assigned him the job even though those duties weren’t part of his typical work. It was filed Wednesday with the state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Frick’s family separately is pursuing a wrongful death claim against UC Berkeley. A call to the university on Friday was not immediately returned.

Stefan Bright Wins Safety Engineer Award

Congratulations to Stefan Bright who won the ASSE award. Stefan is called on sometimes as a consultant, however - as this previous blog picture shows, someone decided to abbreviate “assistant” — with embarrassing results.

ASSE’s 2014 Triangle Award for Heroic Dedication Goes to Stefan Bright - The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is proud to announce Stefan Bright as the winner of the 2014 Triangle Award for Heroic Dedication for his role in establishing a field manual, training and standards that reduced fatalities among professional window washers by 30 percent over the last two decades.

Given in honor of the 146 victims of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City, ASSE’s Triangle Award honors a safety, health and occupational professional who, in the course of going beyond his or her normally assigned duties, either prevents or minimizes physical injury, loss of life or substantial property damage in a workplace. In its second year, the Triangle Award will be given to Bright May 7 during North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) Week in Washington D.C.

“I’ve been at this a long time,” said Bright, 53, of Howell, N.J. “I was one of the guys hanging off the side of a building. We were forced to figure it out. Every time I give a training session, someone says how much it’s helped. It does make me feel good.”

Bright, who received a record five Triangle Award nominations, is the safety director for Ohio-based International Window Cleaning Association (IWCA). Faced with increasing injuries and fatalities among window washers, Bright developed a field manual in 1992 outlining best practices.

In 1994, based largely on Bright’s efforts with the IWCA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recognized professional window washers as a highly skilled occupation. In 1996, Bright developed IWCA’s Window Cleaner Safety Certification Program and in 2001 worked with the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to create a new industry standard named IWCA I-14 Window Cleaning Safety. There are approximately 20,000 professional window washers in the U.S.

It’s estimated that more than 5,000 copies of the standard have been sold and more than 6,700 window cleaning professionals have attended Bright’s training seminars. “Stefan’s vision for bringing safety education and training to window cleaners has been the driving force behind much of what the IWCA has been able to accomplish,” wrote Jack Evans, owner of 20/20 Window Cleaning of NC Inc. and past president of the IWCA.

Founded in 1911, the Des Plaines-based ASSE is the oldest professional safety organization and is committed to protecting people, property and the environment. Its more than 36,000 occupational safety, health and environmental professional members lead, manage, supervise, research and consult on safety, health, transportation and environmental issues in all industries, government, labor, health care and education. For more information please go to www.asse.org.

Stefan Bright (pictured) is the Safety Director of the International Window Cleaning Association & Vice President of the American Anchor Mid-Atlantic Division. As an expert in fall protection and building access equipment, he designs, manufactures, engineers and installs permanent systems on commercial buildings for use by building maintenance workers and outside contractors, such as window cleaners. He also provides fall protection training and documentation for facilities with workforces that may encounter fall hazards.

Also see: Window Washing Is Safer Than Driving a Taxi, where a fuller explanation of the title picture can be seen.

Window Washing Is Safer Than Driving a Taxi

"The platform itself is designed to fold into 90 degrees so it can wrap around the corners," Bright says. The workers on the platform yesterday were maintenance workers, he explained, who were there to fix an earlier problem identified with the platform not straightening.

Don't Forget, Window Washing Is a Lot Safer Than Driving a Taxi - Some elevated scaffolding failed at New York's Hearst Tower Wednesday afternoon, resulting in two workers being left stranded, 40 stories up, for over an hour. So should we be worrying about the high-altitude workers who maintain the world's skyscrapers?
 

Not really, says Stefan Bright, the safety director for the International Window Cleaning Association. "It's pretty rare that anybody gets killed in one of these permanent platforms," Bright says. The full technical name of the type of platform that failed on the Hearst Tower is a "permanently installed powered platform," and of the 500 to 700 of them currently in use across the United States, a whopping 70 to 80 percent of them are in New York City. They're typically designed for buildings over 300 feet.
 

Back in February, The New Yorker published a lengthy article on window-washers (which these two workers yesterday were not, although they were on a window-washing apparatus), noting that "the work of washing windows in the United States is significantly safer than driving a cab." Bright says that in fact there was one fatality in the entire national window-washing industry last year, and two the year before that. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2010, the most recent year with clear definitions on these categories, confirm that fatality rates due to falls for window-washers, janitors, and cleaners are indeed quite low.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data 2002 till 2010, click to enlarge.

The specific platform on the Hearst Tower is a little tricky, as it's designed to bend around the peculiar angles of the building. The same New Yorker piece highlighted this $3-million system on the Hearst Tower, installed in 2005, and designed and built by Toronto-based Tractel-Swingstage:

Designing and building the machine took a team of Tractel engineers three years. The result, a rectangular steel box the size of a Smart car, supporting a forty-foot mast and a hydraulic boom arm attached by six strands of wire rope to a telescopic cleaning basket, houses a computer that monitors sixty-seven electromechanical safety sensors and switches, and runs around the roof of the Hearst Tower on four hundred and twenty feet of elevated steel track.

"The platform itself is designed to fold into 90 degrees so it can wrap around the corners," Bright says. The workers on the platform yesterday were maintenance workers, he explained, who were there to fix an earlier problem identified with the platform not straightening. While he isn't clear on the sequence of events between the problem being discovered and the maintenance workers getting struck on the platform, it appeared the raising and lowering element stopped working. There are also reports that a motor failed in the device. The state's Department of Labor and New York City's Department of Buildings will be investigating yesterday's failure.
 

But these devices just get stuck every once in a while, according to Bright. He pointed out an incident in May, when two window-washers in San Diego were stranded on a building for over an hour before being rescued.
 

News outlets are also drawing links to another incident in New York City back in 2007, when two window washers fell 47 stories after the scaffolding collapsed. Miraculously, one of the men survived. NBC New York reports that the same company that designed the Hearst Tower's device, Tractel, helped maintain the Upper East Side window washing scaffold that fell in 2007. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued Tractel three citations following that incident.

Someone decided to abbreviate “assistant” — with embarrassing results.

NYC station’s abbreviation results in embarrassing new title - WPIX-TV made quite an a… — err, shall we say fool — of itself yesterday with a lower third error. The station was, along with the other New York City stations, covering a scaffolding collapse at the Hearst Tower in Manhattan  when it aired the graphic above. The station managed to track down a window cleaning assistant named Stefan Bright. But someone decided to abbreviate “assistant” — with embarrassing results.

Questions Raised on Scaffold Regulation

One of the cables holding a window-washing platform 37 stories above a downtown street Wednesday morning may have wedged into one of the platform’s engines, causing the engine to let go and the platform to plunge with two workers aboard, according to one official who was briefed on the initial investigation into the accident. The official, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation, said officials are looking away from human error. “It was just a freak thing that happened,’’ the official said. That scenerio is a frightening and all-too-common occurrence with the type of permanent scaffolding that was housed at the Exchange Place building in the Financial District, said one specialist in scaffolding safety.
“They [federal authorities] have a whole code specific to powered maintenance, and it talks about these buildings, specifically,’’ said Stefan Bright, the safety director of the International Window Cleaning Association, an industry group, and the founder of a national company that consults on rigging from buildings. “My guess is, it’s not being enforced,’’ he said, “And that comes to light typically when an accident occurs.’’ However, Massachusetts does not regulate window-washing scaffolding.
Unlike other states, Massachusetts has not embraced what is known as a state plan, allowing it to enforce OSHA guidelines. Therefore, some enforcement duties have fallen into a void between state and federal authorities. Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said yesterday that his office has no authority in permitting or certifying scaffolding, though it does inspect elevators and other hoisting equipment. He could not say why the state has not set up inspection regulations. Firefighters have been credited with breaking the glass of the Exchange Place tower and rescuing the two men, Kyle Redmond (pictured above) and Julio Ortiz, as the pair, who were wearing safety harnesses, hung onto a safety line in panic for some 20 minutes. The incident remains under investigation by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Ted Fitzgerald, an OSHA spokesman, said yesterday that the agency has sent two investigators to the area, but he would not comment on the investigation.
Melissa Coley - a spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties Inc., the owner of Exchange Place - said she would not comment until the investigation is completed. According to Bright, OSHA has a series of regulations governing scaffolding equipment, and officials in other states regularly inspect such equipment. But he also said some of the responsibility lies with the companies. .
The same company that ran the window-washing operations at Exchange Place, Harvard Maintenance, was fined $2,500 in Minneapolis in 2007 because of safety violations. Massachusetts has had fatal window-washing accidents before. In 2005, one window washer was killed and another was injured in Burlington when their scaffolding plunged from a four-story office complex.
In 2003, two window washers died in Boston after their rigging slipped. At his East Walpole home yesterday afternoon, Redmond thanked Boston firefighters for what he called “an amazing rescue.’’ “There was not a prettier sight to me in the world than when that axe came through the window; I just can’t get over it,’’ he told a crowd of reporters. As he desperately held on to the rigging, he recalled, “I heard the sirens. I knew they were coming. I just didn’t move and waited for them to do their job.’’Redmond, who was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and released later that day, did not comment yesterday on his injuries. After undergoing what he described as an “unbelievable experience,’’ he felt like an “emotional wreck,’’ he said. “I’m still shaking,’’ said Redmond, who, after washing windows for the past 28 years, is not sure he will return to the job. “I’m not going over there tomorrow, I’ll tell you that much.’’ Redmond also declined to comment on the investigation but said he was offering his full cooperation. He gave OSHA a statement Wednesday and will be meeting with officials later, he said. “I’m angry,’’ he said. “I’m a little miffed over this. This isn’t over. I’ll have more to say later.’’ He did not elaborate.
Though Massachusetts does not require certification of window washers, Redmond had completed certification on his own through the International Window Cleaning Association. Bright said that Redmond had helped his consulting firm set up building riggings. It was not known yesterday if Ortiz is certified. John Ho, an engineer with the Tractel Group, the international company that manufactured the scaffold, was involved with the design and manufacturing of the scaffold at Exchange Place about five or six years ago, he said, but he did not know what caused the accident. “All of our platforms have safety systems,’’ he said, explaining that the safety harnesses are tethered to the roof. The company declined to comment further.