This year’s National Safety Stand-down to Prevent Falls in Construction is being held May 5–9.

OSHA and CPWR kicked off the stand-down with a webinar to talk about the event and the importance of fall-prevention strategies. Stand-downs like this offer employers and their employees the chance to pause work, raise any safety issues they may have and engage in open dialogue about how to address them based on the employer’s safety policies, goals and expectations.

“We still have a lot of work to do to get the message out and keep preventable fall-related injuries and deaths from occurring,” said Brian Rizzo, director of OSHA’s Office of Construction Services in the Directorate of Construction, in the webinar.

Fall prevention continues to be the leading cause of safety incidents on construction job sites. OSHA issued more than 3,200 fall protection violations and more than 1,000 fall protection training violations in the 6-month period between October 2024 and March 2025, according to the webinar.

Taking a broader view, OSHA’s top violation for fiscal year 2024 (Oct. 1, 2023–Sept. 30, 2024) was fall protection, with 7,036 violations. Ladder safety was No. 4. With 2,897 violations, fall protection training was No. 7 with 2,310 violations and scaffolding was No. 8 with 2,071 violations.

Although this data is sobering, Rizzo highlighted the value of celebrating fall safety wins. “Making sure that we take the time to identify what you’re doing right is critical, and then you can use that information to continuously improve your programs and hold on to those things that are working,” he said.

OSHA and CPWR offer resources for the stand-down on their websites, such as suggestions for holding successful stand-downs, infographics, webinars and stickers to share with employees. Many of these resources have also been translated into Spanish and several other languages. OSHA also offers a certificate of participation that will allow employers to take credit for the work they do as part of the national stand-down.