This section applies to all ship repairing, shipbuilding and shipbreaking industries and operations under the scope of chapter 296-304 WAC, Safety standards for ship repairing, shipbuilding and shipbreaking.

(1) The employer must provide and ensure the use of fall protection when employees work aloft or elsewhere at elevations more than five feet above a solid surface.

(2) Guarding of deck openings and edges.

(a) When employees are working in the vicinity of flush manholes and other small openings of comparable size in the deck and other working surfaces, such openings must be suitably covered or guarded to a height of not less than thirty inches, except where the use of such guards is made impracticable by the work actually in progress.

(b) When employees are working around open hatches not protected by coamings to a height of twenty-four inches or around other large openings, the edge of the opening must be guarded in the working area to a height of thirty-six to forty-two inches, except where the use of such guards is made impracticable by the work actually in progress.

(c) When employees are exposed to unguarded edges of decks, platforms, flats, and similar flat surfaces, more than five feet above a solid surface, the edges must be guarded by adequate guardrails meeting the requirements of WAC 296-304-05001 (9)(a) and (b), unless the nature of the work in progress or the physical conditions prohibit the use or installation of such guardrails.

(d) When employees are working near the unguarded edges of decks of vessels afloat, they must be protected by buoyant personal flotation devices, meeting the requirements of WAC 296-304-09017(1).

(e) Sections of bilges from which floor plates or gratings have been removed must be guarded by guardrails except where they would interfere with work in progress. If these open sections are in a walkway at least two ten-inch planks placed side by side, or equivalent, must be laid across the opening to provide a safe walking surface.

(f) Gratings, walkways, and catwalks, from which sections or ladders have been removed, must be barricaded with adequate guardrails.

Additional requirements for ship repairing, shipbuilding and shipbreaking can be found in chapter 296-304 WAC, Safety standards for ship repairing, shipbuilding and shipbreaking.