Subpart K
A Field Federal Safety and Health Council must have, at minimum, a chairperson, a vice chairperson, and a secretary. See the specific list of required officers in 1960.89(a).
Officers may be elected for either a one-year or a two-year term on a calendar year basis, and elections must be held at least 60 days before the beginning of the calendar year. See the term and timing requirements in 1960.89(a).
Officers are elected by a majority vote of the designated representatives of the council. The requirement that officers be elected by majority vote is stated in 1960.89(a).
Yes—elections may be conducted at a regularly scheduled meeting or by letter ballot (mail). That option is explicitly allowed in 1960.89(a).
Each council must notify the appropriate OSHA Regional Office and the Office of Federal Agency Safety and Health Programs of the name, agency address, and telephone number of each newly elected official. The notification requirement is stated in 1960.89(b).
The Executive Committee must include all elected officers, the chairpersons of appointed committees, and the immediate past chairperson of the field council. That membership is defined in 1960.89(c).
Each council must have, in addition to the Executive Committee, either (a) a membership committee, a program committee, and a finance committee, or (b) a council official designated with responsibility for those areas. The chairperson may also appoint additional committees for specific purposes as needed. See 1960.89(d).
The council's notice must include each newly elected official's name, agency address, and telephone number, as required by 1960.89(b).
Yes—the standard states the Executive Committee consists of the elected officers, chairpersons of appointed committees, and the immediate past chairperson of the field council. If there is no immediate past chairperson (for example, for a newly formed council), the standard's required membership would simply not include that seat. See 1960.89(c).
Yes—the chairperson may appoint additional committees for specific purposes as warranted, according to 1960.89(d).
A council must have an Executive Committee and it must also have either three separate committees (membership, program, and finance) or a designated official responsible for those areas. So the council must cover those responsibilities but may do so either via committees or by assigning them to an official. See 1960.89(c) and 1960.89(d).
Elections on a calendar year basis mean officers' terms align with the calendar year (January–December), and elections must be held at least 60 days before the start of that calendar year; this scheduling requirement is in 1960.89(a).
No—following the council organization rules in 1960.89 does not change an agency's duty to provide a safe workplace under the agency-level obligation in 1960.8 (the Federal agency equivalent of OSH Act Section 5(a)(1)). OSHA has made this distinction in prior guidance; see the discussion in the letter titled "Adoption of ANSI window cleaning standard" (March 28, 2005) at https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2005-03-28-0 which explains that OSHA enforces agency responsibilities under Part 1960 (including 1960.8) for federal agencies.
If an agency wants to apply an alternate standard in lieu of an OSHA requirement, the agency must follow the alternate-standards process in 29 CFR 1960.17 (note: 1960.17 is part of Part 1960) and request the Secretary of Labor's approval before implementing it. OSHA emphasized this point in the interpretation about hexavalent chromium sampling (April 19, 2019) at https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/standardinterpretations/2019-04-19 which references the need to request approval under 1960.17 when applying alternate standards.
The regulation requires notification of the OSHA Regional Office and the Office of Federal Agency Safety and Health Programs of each newly elected official's name, agency address, and telephone number, but it does not specify an exact deadline beyond that requirement. The notice obligation itself is found in 1960.89(b).
The standard requires officers be elected by a majority vote of the designated representatives, which means a candidate must receive more than half of the votes cast by those designated representatives; the regulation does not mandate that every designated representative participate in the vote. See the voting rule in 1960.89(a).
Yes—the regulation allows a council to have either three separate committees (membership, program, and finance) or a council official designated with responsibility for those areas, so assigning the duties to a single official is an acceptable alternative. See 1960.89(d).