A US regulatory agency is strengthening the integrity of its 36-year-old outreach training program in an effort to crack down on fraudulent trainers.

The effort includes ─ but does not single out - those providing training for forklifts and other materials handling equipment.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of the US Department of Labour is seeking to improve the process by which trainers become authorised to teach and ensure that those trainers are in compliance with OSHA program guidelines.

OSHA says its voluntary outreach program covers more than 16,000 independent trainers eligible to teach workers and employers about workplace hazards and to provide OSHA 10-hour course completion cards. However, the agency notes that some trainers have fraudulently not provided the appropriate training in accordance with the program.

"The use of independent trainers has allowed OSHA to significantly extend its training capabilities," says Jordan Barab, acting assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. "But OSHA will not tolerate fraudulent activity or unscrupulous trainers when workers' health and lives may be at stake."

Duncan Murphy notes the OSHA effort is a general statement about safety and that the program references other OSHA sections for details about training of forklift operators. Murphy is 2009 president of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association and president of the Omaha, Nebraska-based forklift dealership Riekes Equipment Co.

"The major brands of forklifts all have quality train-the-trainer programs that are updated regularly," Murphy says. "The materials offered meet or exceed the OSHA requirements. Local dealer trainers that I have seen take their job very seriously, adding their own professionalism. When the three-way partnership of manufacturer/dealer/customer is in place, OSHA rules are met and the workplace is safer. Accidents can occur when one leg ─ no pun intended ─ is missing, with the customer carrying the primary responsibility to ensure their workers are trained and then enforce the rules."