As the construction industry continues to help drive New York City’s economic recovery efforts, this is an increasingly busy time for workers and employers alike. But amid the constant focus on ensuring safety, maximizing quality and meeting project milestones, it’s also crucial to remember that there is an important deadline coming up regarding worker training requirements.

This is all related to the City’s Local Law 196, which initially required construction workers in New York City to secure 30 hours of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) safety training by December 2019. Our team at Building Skills was proud to work closely with many of our participants and employers to help workers get the OSHA-30 training they needed to meet that deadline.

Now, the next deadline under Local Law 196 is coming up on September 1, when workers will need an additional 10 hours of Site Safety Training (SST) to remain qualified for employment opportunities in the construction industry. More specifically, that requirement includes eight hours of fall-prevention training and two hours of drug and alcohol awareness training. 

For workers, this means that if you have not already secure those additional 10 hours, or if you have not yet discussed this with your employer or made plans to schedule your sessions, you should focus on getting support and assistance in accessing the proper training from an approved SST provider. Please reach out to the Building Skills team at any time to raise this issue with us, and we will work with you to identify an approved SST provider and help to schedule a time for you to receive your additional training.

For employers, this means that you will need to ensure that workers on your project team have all received the additional 10 hours of training by the upcoming deadline. If not, you may be subject to fines levied by the City under Local Law 196. Employers should also feel free to reach out to Building Skills at any time to raise this issue with us and discuss how we can leverage our network to help your workers receive the necessary training.

As always, our team looks forward to working with all of you to continue putting New Yorkers on the career path with good, safe jobs in construction.