The ANSI Board of Standards Review (BSR) will hear two appeals of the approval of the new A92 standards for MEWPs on May 7 in New York City, asking for the withdrawal of the standards published in December 2018.
The appeals, which are related to the A92.20 design and A92.22 safety standards, are eligible to be heard by the BSR when the matters have had previous appeals concluded at the standards developer level, which for the A92 standards is the SAIA, the association that serves as the secretariat for A92 series. The BSR does not hear appeals on technical matters alone, but whether a technical issue was given due consideration or followed the outlined process according to ANSI’s procedures.
DeAnna Martin, SAIA associate director and ANSI liaison, says this is the secretariat’s first hearings of this nature on the ANSI level, making it challenging to predict potential outcomes, which range from the dismissal of one or both of the appeals to the postponement of the standards’ effective date, which is currently set for December.
“It’s in the hands of the Board of Standards Review what the next steps may be,” Martin says.
She says both sides, the appellants in each case and the respondent, which is the secretariat, will have the opportunity to present their case to the BSR, which is made up of about a dozen ANSI members that serve as individuals and not representatives of a particular organization. At least five BSR members will hear the appeals, with each side allowed a 30-minute presentation and up to three speakers, followed by a question-and-answer session from the board's panel. Then the panel will go into a closed session to deliberate.
Martin says the BSR will issue a written decision within 15 business days of the hearing.
Appeals decisions rendered by the BSR can then be submitted for a final appeal to the ANSI Appeals Board, according to Anne Caldas, secretary for the ANSI BSR.
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