What should employers do to prevent worker falls and accidents when using portable ladders?

Ensuring that rungs and steps of portable ladders are slip-resistant is crucial for preventing falls and accidents in the workplace. Slip resistance provides traction for the user's shoes, reducing the likelihood of slipping while climbing or descending the ladder. This feature is particularly important because falls from ladders are a common source of workplace injuries. When rungs and steps are designed with materials or surface patterns that enhance grip, they significantly improve the safety of using ladders.

While visibility through color coding can aid in ladder identification, wearing helmets can provide some protection, and storing ladders vertically helps in managing space and organization, none of these directly address the immediate risk of slips while using the ladder. Therefore, the most effective strategy among the options to prevent falls is to ensure that the surfaces of the ladder used by workers are designed to minimize slipping.