To verify an SST card in New York City, scan it in the Training Connect app before the worker enters the site. Training Connect is the phone app from the Department of Buildings (DOB). Next, check that the card is the right type and has not expired. Last, confirm that the person holding it is the person it was issued to. SST stands for Site Safety Training, the card the city requires under Local Law 196 of 2017. A scan tells you the card is valid in DOB's system, but it cannot tell you who is holding it. BiltOn is a Safety Intelligence platform that verifies every worker at the gate by 3D facial recognition, and that verified record feeds its Predictive Safety Management scoring. This guide covers the card types, the checks DOB expects, real fake-card cases, and the penalties.
Who needs an SST card on a NYC jobsite, and for how many hours?
Workers on sites that need a Site Safety Plan and a designated safety lead must hold an SST card. DOB puts it this way: under Local Law 196, these workers must hold an SST card. The sites are those that need both a Site Safety Plan and a Construction Superintendent, Site Safety Coordinator, or Site Safety Manager. The Worker card needs "a minimum of 40 hours of safety training." The Supervisor card needs a minimum of 62 hours. The duty falls on the permit holder, the party named on the DOB permit. It applies at each building site that must have a superintendent, site safety manager, or site safety coordinator. DOB's FAQ says personnel must hold a card "regardless of company size." You can check any address on DOB's Site Safety Construction Map.
Card | Hours | Who needs it | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
SST Worker card | At least 40 | Workers on covered sites, such as construction and demolition workers, journeypersons, and forepersons | Valid five years. Renewal takes 8 hours of refresher training. |
SST Supervisor card | At least 62 | Site safety managers, site safety coordinators, construction superintendents, concrete safety managers, and competent persons (workers who must lead tasks the code assigns to a competent person) | Valid five years. Renewal takes 16 hours. |
Temporary SST card | Starts from OSHA 10 or 30 | Workers with a 10-hour or 30-hour OSHA card from the past five years, who finish the rest of the training | Valid six months. OSHA is the federal workplace safety agency. |
OSHA 10-hour and 30-hour | 10 or 30 | Building blocks, not an SST card | The 10-hour counts toward one 40-hour worker path. The 30-hour counts as 30 hours toward the worker and supervisor cards. |
Worker Wallet | Not applicable | A separate plastic card that proves other courses, such as scaffold training |
The rules came in steps. These are the dates that matter:
On March 1, 2018, workers on covered sites had to show OSHA 10, OSHA 30, or a 100-hour program.
On June 1, 2019, the 62-hour Supervisor card and a 30-hour Limited SST card began.
On September 1, 2020, the 40-hour Worker card took effect. The Limited card expired on August 31, 2020.
Since February 1, 2023, only cards issued through Training Connect count on sites that need a DOB-licensed safety professional.
Two numbers do most of the work: 40 hours for workers and 62 for supervisors. Both cards last five years. Match the card type to the person's job before you check anything else.
How do you check an SST card at the gate?
DOB says every SST card must be validated in the Training Connect app before the worker is allowed entry. That app was once called the SST Validator. The public may download it, and DOB encourages site safety professionals to use it to check that workers hold valid cards. A good gate check goes past the scan. It also looks at the card type, the expiry date, and the site's own log. For a way to track card expiry dates without the manual chase, see worker certification tracking.
Confirm the site needs SST. Enter the job address in the Site Safety Construction Map.
Check the card type. A competent person or superintendent needs the Supervisor card, not the Worker card.
Scan the card in Training Connect before the worker walks in.
Check the status. An expired card is a no-go, even if the worker is still inside the renewal window.
Write it down. DOB told permit holders to keep a daily log of each worker, with proof of training, and a copy of each worker's card.
Cards last five years. DOB lets a worker renew up to one year after the card expires. During that year, "an expired SST card may not be used to work on a jobsite." For cards that expire on or after May 3, 2026, the app shows the card as expired until it is renewed. Treat that screen as a hard stop.
Does a valid SST card prove the person holding it is the cardholder?
No. A card, or a scan of a card, shows that the card is in DOB's system. DOB's published pages do not describe any step that matches the card to the face holding it. The law allows for this gap. An employer has a defense if a worker showed a card that "reasonably appeared to be valid" and the employer reasonably relied on it. A paper card can be lent, copied, or faked. The safe habit is to link the card to a verified person at the gate and keep a dated record.
Question | What a spot check shows (card in hand, or a scan) | What only a verified identity shows (such as 3D facial verification at the gate) |
|---|---|---|
Is the card in DOB's system and active? | Yes. The app is built to check the validity of any SST card. | The same check still applies. Identity does not replace it. |
Is it the right card type for this job? | Yes, if the checker reads the card. | Yes. The card and trade are tied to one worker profile. |
Is the person holding it the person it was issued to? | Not proven. DOB's pages do not say the app confirms who is holding the card. | Yes. The worker's face is matched to the enrolled worker. |
Who is this worker's employer today? | No. | Yes. The employer is tied to the verified profile. |
Was this worker here on a given date and time? | Only if someone wrote it down. | Yes. Every check-in and check-out is timestamped by site. |
Did the training really happen? | No. DOB said affected Redcode cards "will remain active when scanned" during the grace period. | Not by itself. Provider audits are how training gets tested. |
Fake cards are not a thought experiment. On September 8, 2026, the Brooklyn District Attorney announced an indictment of Redcode Inc., its owner, and an associate. The office says undercover city investigators were offered SST and OSHA cards for $500 each between April and July 2025. They had not finished the training. They only signed attendance sheets. An indictment is an accusation, not proof of guilt. DOB is invalidating all Redcode SST certificates. Affected workers have until December 7, 2026 to retake the training. Cards from other providers that used Redcode certificates are covered too, and they stay active only if the worker retakes the required training.
Earlier cases looked different. In April 2023, the same office charged people with making fake cards and with selling cards without training. It said the defendants allegedly sold "dozens of fake safety cards" for $200 to $650 each. That investigation began after NYCHA reported card discrepancies during a routine check. In 2024, the city's Department of Investigation told DOB to record each trainee's start and end times with a unique electronic time stamp.
There are two kinds of fraud. One is a forged or borrowed card. The other is a real card issued with no real training. A gate check can catch the first kind, and a face match catches the borrowed card. The second kind needs provider audits, which the law requires DOB to perform periodically. For a deeper look at the gate itself, see construction site access control, from check-in to verified identity.
What happens if a worker has no valid SST card, and can DOB stop the job?
Each worker without a valid card can count as a separate violation, and the fine can land on several parties. The law says each such worker is a separate violation, charged separately. DOB says it issues violations to the owner, the permit holder, and the employer, where applicable. A stop work order is an order that halts work at the site. DOB can issue one when it finds building work being done in violation of the code or in an unsafe way. DOB's published pages do not say that a missing SST card alone triggers one.
Fines: The law sets a minimum civil penalty of $5,000 for breaking the training rule. DOB may lower the minimum to $2,500 for a first violation. DOB's FAQ describes penalties as high as $5,000 per untrained worker.
Repeat violations: A second or later violation of the training rule is on the list of immediately hazardous violations.
Missing log: The minimum penalty for a log violation is $2,500. Failing to keep the log also creates a presumption that each worker is not compliant.
Stop work orders: DOB's guide to when it may issue one lists "Site Safety Log not on site," cited to Building Code 3321.2.
False paperwork: A false certification to DOB is a misdemeanor. It carries up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $25,000, or both.
The stakes at the site level are high. DOB issued 7,618 stop work orders in 2025, up 24 percent from 6,138 the year before. Working through an order costs $6,000 for the first violation and $12,000 for each later one. Our guide to stop work orders in NYC covers how enterprise general contractors (GCs) avoid and resolve them.
How does BiltOn help tie an SST card to a verified worker?
BiltOn links the card to a verified person at the gate and keeps a dated record. It does not replace the Training Connect scan that DOB requires. Every worker is verified at the gate by 3D facial recognition. Each is tied to an employer, a trade, an orientation status, and a set of credentials. Every check-in and check-out is timestamped by site, including cross-midnight shifts and per-site time zones. Document Management keeps certificates and endorsements by subcontractor in one place.
The attendance and hours record by worker and employer can be exported. It syncs two ways with Procore and Autodesk, both partners. It is kept in tamper-evident form, which was piloted in the work behind NYC DOB Buildings Bulletin 2024-007. To see why DOB's stance on digital records matters, read NYC DOB approves digital record-keeping. The result is a simple answer to a hard question: who was on site, for which employer, and when.
Customer proof point: SD Builders. SD Builders, a New York City GC, replaced badge swipes with facial verification turnstiles. It reports zero false workers' comp claims since. It also dismissed one claim outright for a date the worker never badged in. A badge can be handed to a friend. A face cannot.
As Omer Slavin, Co-Founder and CEO of BiltOn, puts it: "See every site, verify every worker, prove every record."
Request a demo and we will show you how BiltOn puts this to work on your sites. Book a demo at bilton.tech/demo.
Executive takeaway
NYC requires an SST card for workers on sites that need a Site Safety Plan and a safety lead. The Worker card takes at least 40 hours, the Supervisor card takes at least 62, and both last five years. DOB says each card must be validated in Training Connect before the worker enters. A scan shows the card is on file. It does not show that the right person is holding it, or that the training was real. The Redcode indictment, with its December 7, 2026 retraining deadline, shows that a record can be wrong. The safe habit is to scan the card, link it to a verified person at the gate, and keep a dated record of both.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I verify an SST card in NYC?
Scan the card in the DOB Training Connect app before the worker enters the site. DOB says every card must be validated that way. Also check the card type and expiry date, and log the result.
2. How long is an SST card valid, and can an expired card be used?
An SST card is valid for five years. A worker can renew up to one year after it expires. During that year, the expired card cannot be used to work on a jobsite.
3. What is the difference between an SST Worker card and an SST Supervisor card?
The Worker card shows at least 40 hours of training. The Supervisor card shows at least 62 hours. Site safety managers, site safety coordinators, construction superintendents, and competent persons need the Supervisor card.
4. Is there an official DOB list or tool to check training providers and cards?
DOB posts a Registered Course Provider List with each provider's ID number and approved courses. It also offers the Training Connect app to check cards. DOB's pages do not describe a step that matches a card to the person holding it.
5. What should I do about Redcode SST cards?
Workers with Redcode cards have until December 7, 2026 to retake the training through a DOB-registered provider. After that, DOB says the cards are revoked. Cards from other providers that used Redcode certificates are affected too.
Works Cited
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). SST Card Information. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). Site Safety Training. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). Site Safety Training Frequently Asked Questions. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). About NYCDOB Training Connect. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). Worker Wallet Information. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). FAQs: Local Law 10 of 2026. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). Frequently Asked Questions regarding the Redcode Inc. indictment. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2022). Training Connect Service Notice. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2018). Local Law 196 of 2017 SST Update. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2018). SST Update, March 2018. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. Guide: Stop Work Order (SWO) Issuance. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. Certificate of Correction and Statement in Support, Sections 3321.1 and 3321.2.1. NYC.gov.
NYC Department of Buildings. (2026). 2025 Construction Safety Report. NYC.gov.
New York City Council. (2017). Local Law 196 of 2017. NYC.gov.
New York City Council. (2017). Local Law 157 of 2017. NYC.gov.
New York City Council. (2019). Local Law 219 of 2019. NYC.gov.
New York City Council. (2019). Local Law 62 of 2019. NYC.gov.
Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. (2026). Two Individuals and Company Indicted for Making and Selling Fake OSHA and Buildings Department Site Safety Cards. Brooklyn DA.
Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. (2023). Brooklyn Residents Indicted for Making and Selling Fake OSHA and Buildings Department Safety Cards. Brooklyn DA.
NYC Department of Investigation. (2024). Release #11-2024. NYC.gov.
BiltOn. (2026). Worker Certification and COI Tracking Without the Manual Chase; Construction Site Access Control: From Check-In to Verified Identity; Stop Work Orders in NYC; NYC DOB Approves Digital Record-Keeping. bilton.tech.
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