Not OSHA approved

I was hanging laundry on the patio the other day and was watching the workers across the way. The builing across the courtyard had gutted the attic and is putting in a new apartment there. They have been working on it since we moved here. I see the workers going up/down the temporary elevator that is attached to the outside of the building all the time. The other day when I was on the patio I see two metal pipes sticking out of two windows and a third pipe being rolled out on them. I was curious what they were going to be doing with them so I watched while I was putting the laundry out. I went inside for a minute and came back out and there was a guy attaching the perpendicular pipe to the two that were sticking out. I just kept thinking, "this is definitely not OSHA approved!". I'm not sure if I can accurately describe this but I will do my best. Underneath one window is a patio. The patio has one of those roll out umbrellas that is attached to the wall. Next to the patio is open space and then a wall where the builing comes out at a right angle. So this guy has one foot on the wall and one foot on the roll out sunshade. He has one arm over one of the metal pipes sticking out the window and is using his other arm/hand to fasten the two pipes together. So he is basically on the 5 floor by US standards with nothing below him to catch him if he falls and he is counting on a roll out shade to hold his weight!! It was making me nervous watching him. I went inside and came back out and he was fine and back inside the apartment. A little while later he was back outside again and this time standing with both feet on the roll out sun shade. This didn't make me as nervous since there was a patio underneath him so he couldn't fall that far but it still shocked me that the workers would be so unsafe.