The Permit-Required Confined Spaces standard, 1910.146, provides detailed instructions that you must follow when arranging to have contract workers perform work that involves permit space entry. In such situations, you must:

• Inform the contractor that the workplace contains permit spaces and that permit space entry is allowed only through compliance with a permit space program meeting the requirements §1910.146;
• Apprise the contractor of the elements, including the hazards identified and your experience with the space, which make the space in question a permit space;
• Apprise the contractor of any precautions or procedures you have implemented to protect employees in or near permit spaces where contractor personnel will be working;
• Coordinate entry operations with the contractor when both your personnel and contractor personnel will be working in or near permit spaces, as required by §1910.146(d)(11); and
• Debrief the contractor after the entry operations regarding the permit space program and any hazards confronted or created during entry operations.

In addition, contractors also have responsibilities under 1910.146. They must:

• Obtain from you any available information regarding permit space hazards and entry operations;
• Coordinate entry operations with you when you both will be working in or near permit spaces; and
• Inform you of the permit space program they will follow and of any hazards confronted or created in permit spaces.