Each agency head shall comply with all occupational safety and health standards issued under section 6 of the Act, or with alternate standards issued pursuant to this subpart. In complying with section 6 standards, an agency may, upon prior notification to the Secretary, prescribe and enforce more stringent permissible exposure levels or threshold limit values and may require more frequent monitoring of exposures without recourse to the approval procedures for alternate standards described in § 1960.17. In addition, after consultation with employees and safety and health committees and prior notification to the Secretary, an agency may utilize the latest edition of a reference standard if it is more stringent than the section 6 standard. After notification, the Secretary may require the use of the approval procedures for alternate standards for any of the situations described in this paragraph.

An agency head may apply an alternate standard where deemed necessary, and shall, after consultation with employees or their representatives, including appropriate occupational safety and health committees, notify the Secretary and request approval of such alternate standards.

(a) Any request by the head of the agency for an alternate standard shall be transmitted to the Secretary.

(b) Any such request for an alternate standard shall not be approved by the Secretary unless it provides equivalent or greater protection for affected employees. Any such request shall include:

(1) A statement of why the agency cannot comply with the OSHA standard or wants to adopt an alternate standard;

(2) A description of the alternate standard;

(3) An explanation of how the alternate standard provides equivalent or greater protection for the affected employees;

(4) A description of interim protective measures afforded employees until a decision is rendered by the Secretary of Labor; and

(5) A summary of written comments, if any, from interested employees, employee representatives, and occupational safety and health committees.

(a) In addition to complying with emergency temporary standards issued under section 6 of the Act, an agency head shall adopt such emergency temporary and permanent supplementary standards as necessary and appropriate for application to working conditions of agency employees for which there exists no appropriate OSHA standards. In order to avoid any possible duplication of effort, the agency head should notify the Secretary of the subject matter of such standard when the development of the standard begins.

(b) The agency head shall send a copy of the final draft of the permanent supplementary standard to the Secretary prior to official adoption by the agency, along with any written comments on the standard from interested employees, employee representatives, and occupational safety and health committees. If the Secretary finds the permanent supplementary standard to be adopted inconsistent with OSHA standards, or inconsistent with OSHA enforcement practices under section 5(a)(1) of the Act, the Secretary shall have 15 working days in which to notify the head of the agency of this finding. In such a case, the supplementary standard shall not be adopted, but the agency will be afforded an opportunity to resubmit a revised standard that is designed to provide adequate protection and is consistent with OSHA standards. Upon request of the agency head, the Secretary shall offer to the agency technical assistance in the development of the supplemental standard.

(a) Where employees of different agencies engage in joint operations, and/or primarily report to work or carry out operations in the same establishment, the standards adopted under § 1960.17 or § 1960.18 of the host agency shall govern.

(b) There are situations in which the head of an agency is required to comply with standards affecting occupational safety and health issued by a Federal agency other than OSHA. For example, standards issued by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy, or the General Services Administration may be applicable to certain Federal workplaces. Nothing in this subpart affects the duty of any agency head to comply with such standards. In addition, agency heads should comply with other standards issued by Federal agencies which deal with hazardous working conditions, but for which OSHA has no standards.

(c) Although it is not anticipated that standards of other Federal agencies will conflict with OSHA standards, should such conflict occur, the head of the agency shall inform the other Federal agency and the Secretary so that joint efforts to resolve the issues may be undertaken. However, until conflicts are resolved, agencies shall comply with the more protective of the conflicting standards.