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Scissor Lift & Fall Protection Requirements

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) is the branch of the U.S. Department of Labor that administers and enforces safety and health in the workplace. It is also the governing body that determines fall protection requirements for scissor lifts.

  1. OSHA Regulations

    • When working on an elevated scissors lift, workers are only required to use a guardrail system to prevent a fall. No fall restraint harness (also known as a fall arrest system) is required.

    Supplemental Fall Protection Option

    • You may want to be "extra safe" and use a harness, too. However this is usually not advised because most manufacturers do not provide an anchor point to connect the "snaphook" of a fall arrest harness. OSHA prohibits tying off to a guard rail as per 29CFR 1926.502(d)(23)): "Personal fall arrest systems shall not be attached to guardrail systems." Therefore, you would actually be in violation of OSHA law.

    Anti-Harness Argument

    • The logic against using harnesses is that if you were to fall over the guard rail while tethered, the force produced by the fall would cause the scissor lift to topple. This may cause you to be injured not only by the fall, but by the falling unit.

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