When OSHA published its proposal to eliminate the 2036 compliance deadline for fixed ladder fall protection this spring, it set up one of the more consequential fall protection debates in recent memory. LJB’s Thom Kramer participated in the public hearing at the end of August, and provides the following updates and insights.
Two Questions, One Ruling
In late August, OSHA hosted a hearing on a proposal to eliminate the 2036 deadline for fixed ladder fall protection — and to potentially reinstate cages. The proposal drew unified opposition at the public hearing. ASSP, ISEA, and NATE all urged the agency to keep the current requirements in place, citing engineering data, incident records, and cost evidence that challenge the proposal’s core rationale. No final rule has been issued, so the 2036 deadline currently still stands.
LJB’s Thom Kramer participated in the hearing, representing ASSP. Read our blog that provides a full breakdown of the hearing testimony and what it means for your fall protection planning.
The Hearing: A Unified Industry Response
At the hearing, testimony came from the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) — represented by Thom Kramer, SVP, and Dan Henn, Chair of the ASSP Z359 Fall Protection Committee — and from NATE, the Communications Infrastructure Contractors Association, represented by Kathy Stieler. Both organizations, along with the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) in earlier written comments, arrived at the same conclusion: OSHA should keep the current rule in place.
The reasoning is grounded in engineering. A cage is a passive enclosure — if it interrupts a fall at all, it does so when the worker’s body strikes the structure itself, with no engineered energy absorption and no controlled arrest. A ladder safety system or PFAS, by contrast, is built and tested to defined performance criteria specifically to arrest a fall and limit the force transmitted to the worker’s body. That distinction, reflected throughout the ANSI/ASSP Z359 standards, is the throughline connecting every comment letter and every testimony submitted.
The evidence backs up those claims. OSHA itself confirmed in a 2019 interpretation letter that cages aren’t permissible fall protection on fixed ladders erected after November 2018. ISEA’s review of OSHA’s Severe Injury Report database identified 22 separate incidents of workers falling from fixed ladders inside cage systems — several resulting in fractures and hospitalization. And OSHA’s own fatality investigation records include a worker who fell 65 feet from a caged fixed ladder on a grain bucket elevator in April 2020. Cages, in short, don’t reliably prevent the fall — they just change where the impact happens.
Rethinking the Cost Argument
OSHA’s proposal leans partly on the premise that retrofit costs are too high to justify holding the line on the 2036 deadline. Commenters pushed back on that premise directly. ISEA cited commercially available ladder safety systems ranging from roughly $1,200 to $2,000 for standard vertical lifeline systems — a fraction of what fatalities, catastrophic injuries, and workers’ compensation claims cost employers over time. And the 20-year compliance window itself was designed precisely so employers could fold these upgrades into normal maintenance and capital replacement cycles rather than treating them as an emergency expense. Removing the deadline, commenters argued, doesn’t lower the actual cost of a retrofit — it just removes the incentive to complete it.
Where Things Stand — and what to do Now
No final rule has been issued. That means the 2036 deadline remains current law, and the proposal to eliminate it is still just an idea. For organizations managing fixed ladder infrastructure — towers, silos, tanks, grain elevators, industrial process equipment — the prudent move is to keep planning as though the deadline holds.
This is an appropriate moment to take stock: inventory which fixed ladders over 24 feet still rely on cages or wells, prioritize retrofits by height and consequence of a fall, and start folding PFAS or ladder safety system installations into existing capital planning, rather than waiting on a rulemaking outcome that may not materialize. It also means specifying new and retrofit work to current ANSI/ASSP Z359 standards, since those standards — not the outcome of this docket — remain the technical baseline the industry is building toward regardless of what OSHA ultimately decides.
LJB will continue tracking Docket OSHA-2025-0072 as it moves toward a final rule and will share updates as they develop. You can learn more on the background, rule, and hearing on our previous blog about these regulations.
Visit our ladder safety page for additional details and links to the original petition, Federal Register notice and the public comment site.