Contractor Safety training at petroleum refining or petrochemical manufacturing facilities (WA-OSHA)

The department is initiating rulemaking to implement the advanced safety training requirements for High Hazard Facilities. Chapter 49.80 RCW, enacted in 2019, requires owners of petroleum refining or petrochemical manufacturing facilities to use a skilled and trained workforce when contracting for construction, alteration, demolition, installation, repair, or maintenance work. By January 1, 2022, all workers in the skilled and trained workforce must have completed within the past three calendar years at least twenty hours of approved advanced safety training for workers at high hazard facilities. This rulemaking will include requirements for advanced safety training certification for workers, the curriculum for in-person classroom and laboratory instruction, and approval of training providers. 

Here is an overview of what is required TODAY, 1/1/2021, 1/1/2022, 1/1/2023, 1/1/2024:

ESHB 1817/RCW 49.860 requires:

• Owners and operators of facilities engaged in petroleum refining or petrochemical manufacturing to ensure their contractors and subcontractors use a skilled and trained workforce to perform onsite work within an apprenticeable occupation in the building and construction trade.
• A skilled and trained workforce means a workforce where all the workers are either registered apprentices or skilled journeypersons.
  • A registered apprentice is:
    • An active apprentice in a Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council (WSATC)-approved apprenticeship program.
  • A skilled journeyperson is someone who:
    • Has either graduated from a WSATC-approved apprenticeship program for the applicable occupation or has at least as many hours of on-the-job experience as would be required to graduate; and
    • Is paid a rate commensurate with a rate typically paid for the occupation, and no less than the 75th percentile in the applicable occupation and geographic area in the most recent occupational employment statistics published by the Employment Security Department.
• A phased-in schedule for percentages of skilled journeyperson who must be graduates from a WSATC-approved apprenticeship program.
• Skilled and trained workers to complete 20 hours of advanced safety training every three years. L&I is compiling that curriculum and intends to have it complete by summer of 2021.

ESHB 1817/RCW 49.80 Implementation Schedule