OKLAHOMA CITY – Hours of operation for the state Labor Department’s licensing windows will change on March 7.
Starting on that date, the windows will be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. except for Thursdays, when the licensing windows will close at noon. The change in hours will continue until further notice, said Liz Searock, the DoL’s director of governmental and public affairs.
The Oklahoma Department of Labor office in Oklahoma City is at 3017 N. Stiles, Suite 100.
The Labor Department “oversees the licensure, registration, and regulation of 51 distinct occupational licenses throughout the state,” the agency reports on its website.
The ODOL licenses approximately 10,000 individuals and businesses “while simultaneously protecting the health, safety, and welfare of all Oklahomans by ensuring that licensees have met a standard of expertise.”
Occupational areas licensed by the state Labor Department include alarms, locksmiths and fire sprinklers, boiler/pressure vessels, alternative fuels, asbestos abatement, welders, elevators and amusement park rides.
A year ago, State Labor Commissioner Leslie Osborn told members of the House and Senate appropriations committees that her agency:
Ÿ coordinates boiler/pressure vessel inspections and licensing. There are 69,500 registered pressure vessels across the state, the commissioner said. This area was brought under state regulation after the Star-Spencer Elementary School disaster in January 1982, when an 80-gallon water heater exploded, killing six children and one teacher and injuring 35 other people.
Ÿlicenses alarm, locksmith and fire sprinkler companies and employees, including managers, sales personnel, technicians, inspectors and trainees.
Ÿ licenses alternative fuels companies and alternative fuels equipment technicians, compression technicians and electric vehicle technicians. Oklahoma has approximately 100 alternative fuels stations, Ms. Osborn said.
Ÿ monitors amusement park rides. The Labor Department inspects all amusement rides at permanent amusement parks annually, and all mobile amusement rides are inspected every time they are moved. Labor Department personnel inspected 1,884 amusement rides at local and state events in 2020, Osborn said.
Ÿ enforces asbestos abatement regulations and licenses employees, including supervisors, contractors, inspectors, planners, project designers, and workers.
Ÿ licenses welders. A welder is required to renew the state license each year.
One legislator complained that Latimer County had no plumbers. “We have to go to Pittsburg County to get one,” he said. “We don’t license plumbers,” Osborn replied. Plumbers are certified by the Oklahoma Construction Industries Board.
Ÿ The state Labor Department inspects elevators and escalators, and licenses elevator inspectors, contractors, mechanics and apprentices.
There are 6,665 public-access elevators throughout the state except for those in Oklahoma City, Searock said. The Labor Department is responsible for inspecting all elevators and escalators in the state except for those in Oklahoma City, which is the responsibility of City Hall, Osborn said.
The Labor Department’s elevator master list includes residential stairway chairlifts, airport moving sidewalks, platform lifts at wholesale and retail businesses, escalators and freight/passenger elevators at city halls and county courthouses, state office buildings, public libraries, hospitals and medical office buildings, churches, hotels/motels, banks, schools, parking garages, private businesses, casinos, shopping malls, museums, etc.