The Florida Senate

633.821  Workplace safety.--

(1)  The division shall assist in making the firefighter employee place of employment a safer place to work and decreasing the frequency and severity of on-the-job injuries in such workplace.

(2)  The division shall have the authority to adopt rules for the purpose of ensuring safe working conditions for all firefighter employees by authorizing the enforcement of effective standards, by assisting and encouraging firefighter employers to maintain safe working conditions, and by providing for education and training in the field of safety. Specifically, the division may by rule adopt all or any part of subparts C through T and subpart Z of 29 C.F.R. s. 1910, as revised April 8, 1998; the National Fire Protection Association, Inc., Standard 1500, paragraph 5-7 (Personal Alert Safety System) (1992 edition); and ANSI A 10.4-1990.

(3)  With respect to 29 C.F.R. s. 1910.134(g)(4), the two individuals located outside the immediately dangerous to life and health atmosphere may be assigned to an additional role, such as incident commander, pumper operator, engineer, or driver, so long as such individual is able to immediately perform assistance or rescue activities without jeopardizing the safety or health of any firefighter working at an incident. Also with respect to 29 C.F.R. s. 1910.134(g)(4):

(a)  Each county, municipality, and special district shall implement such provision by April 1, 2002, except as provided in paragraphs (b) and (c).

(b)  If any county, municipality, or special district is unable to implement such provision by April 1, 2002, without adding additional personnel to its firefighting staff or expending significant additional funds, such county, municipality, or special district shall have an additional 6 months within which to implement such provision. Such county, municipality, or special district shall notify the division that the 6-month extension to implement such provision is in effect in such county, municipality, or special district within 30 days after its decision to extend the time for the additional 6 months. The decision to extend the time for implementation shall be made prior to April 1, 2002.

(c)  If, after the extension granted in paragraph (b), the county, municipality, or special district, after having worked with and cooperated fully with the division and the Firefighters Employment, Standards, and Training Council, is still unable to implement such provisions without adding additional personnel to its firefighting staff or expending significant additional funds, such municipality, county, or special district shall be exempt from the requirements of 29 C.F.R. s. 1910.134(g)(4). However, each year thereafter the division shall review each such county, municipality, or special district to determine if such county, municipality, or special district has the ability to implement such provision without adding additional personnel to its firefighting staff or expending significant additional funds. If the division determines that any county, municipality, or special district has the ability to implement such provision without adding additional personnel to its firefighting staff or expending significant additional funds, the division shall require such county, municipality, or special district to implement such provision. Such requirement by the division under this paragraph constitutes final agency action subject to chapter 120.

(4)  The provisions of chapter 440 that pertain to workplace safety apply to the division.

(5)  The division may adopt any rule necessary to implement, interpret, and make specific the provisions of this section, provided the division may not adopt by rule any other standard or standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the National Fire Protection Association relating solely to ss. 633.801-633.821 and firefighter employment safety without specific legislative authority.

History.--s. 15, ch. 2002-404.