605 Confined Space Safety

Construction Employer Classifications

The host employer owns or manages the property on which construction is taking place.

The controlling contractor is the employer that has overall responsibility for construction at the worksite.

If a host employer has overall responsibility for construction at the worksite, then they are both a host employer and controlling contractor.

The subcontractor is the junior or secondary contractor who contracts with the controlling or "prime" contractor to perform some or all contractual-obligations under the prime contract.

The entry employer is usually a subcontractor who directs workers to enter a confined space for work or rescue.

Coordinating Confined Space Entry

The rule makes the controlling contractor, rather than the host employer, the primary point of contact for information about permit spaces at the worksite. The host employer must provide information about permit spaces at the worksite to the controlling contractor, who then passes it on to the employers whose employees will enter the spaces (entry employers).

Likewise, entry employers must give the controlling contractor information about their entry program and the hazards they encounter in the space. The controlling contractor then passes that information on to other entry employers and back to the host. As mentioned above, the controlling contractor is also responsible for making sure employers outside a space know not to create hazards in the space, and that entry employers working in a space at the same time do not create hazards for one another's workers.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.