What Is an OPOS?

Building Owners / Managers:

Since August 22, 1998, Cal-OSHA has been requiring the building owners to maintain Operating Procedure Outline Sheet (OPOS) on every building 36 feet or more in height.

An OPOS is a document which describes the way we, the window washers, work on your buildings. And it needs to be written by one of the 28 state-licensed Scaffolding Inspection and Testing agents (SIT) prior to our job. The violations to this requirement will cost both you and us some severe fines.

I am enclosing the list of the SIT's. Please have your SIT contact me so that I could assist him in OPOS preparation. I am sorry to inform you of this new regulation which undoubtedly will cause you some extra expenses or delay in your projects. I am personally fighting against Cal-OSHA to repeal this bad law. I am working with IWCA ( International Window Cleaners' Association ) to have our version of window washing "law," IWCA I-14 recognized in the industry.

I would also like to inform you that there are many window washing companies, especially the small owner-operations, who are unaware of, or willfully ignoring this regulation. Please use your careful discretion before accepting their bids for your window cleaning requests, as the Cal-OSHA sanctions will fall upon not only the employers but also the building owners / managers.

Again, I am sorry to have you involved with this bureaucratic idiocy. If you have any questions, please contact me at (415) 346-2601 or Larry McCune, Senior Safety Engineer, Cal-OSHA at (415) 703-5163.