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Subchapter 7. General Industry Safety Orders
Group 1. General Physical Conditions and Structures Orders
Article 3. Special Design Requirements
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§3241.1. Working Warehouses


(a) Definitions.

(1) “Sales floor” means any area where the public is invited to shop, whether indoors or outdoors.

(2) “Working warehouse” means a wholesale or retail establishment in which heavy machinery, including, but not limited to, forklifts, is used in any area where the public shops while customers are on the premises, and merchandise is stored on shelves higher than 12 feet above the sales floor.

(3) “Shelf” means a support structure of rigid material such as wood, glass, metal or metal grating to hold or store merchandise. For the purposes of this section, shelves are fixed horizontally to a wall or other vertical surface including upright wood or metal frames and columns that contain structural support, such as shelves, racks, or cantilevered arms for storing merchandise including palletized items.

(b) In addition to the requirements of subsections (c) and (e) of Section 3241, all merchandise on shelves higher than 12 feet above the sales floor of a working warehouse shall be secured. Methods of securing merchandise shall include rails, fencing, netting, security doors, gates, cables, or the binding of items on a pallet into one unit by shrink-wrapping, metal or plastic banding, or by tying items together with a cord.

Note: The height of 12 feet specified in subsections (a)(2) and (b) is the distance measured from the floor to the top plane of the shelf on which merchandise is stored, and not the distance from the floor to the top of the merchandise.

(c) When heavy machinery is used to place or retrieve merchandise on a shelf in a working warehouse, there shall be a safety zone established to temporarily block persons other than the operator from entering areas where merchandise could fall.

NOTE

Authority cited: Section 142.3, Labor Code. Reference: Sections 142.3, 9101 and 9102, Labor Code.

HISTORY

1. New section filed 10-1-2004; operative 10-31-2004 (Register 2004, No. 40).

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