Safet Topic-Lone Worker

Greetings of the day!

This is a general topic about Lone Worker Policy being described by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA- a part of United States Department of Labours). The policy can be easily understood by the following steps at site by the site engineer and safety officers.

1)      What OSHA Says about Lone Workers

General Duty Clause says that the site engineers/safety officers must provide the workers a workplace that is free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause serious physical harms or death. 

Not every situation where our worker would be alone would fall into this category, but how do you know when this applies? Your best bet, as a personal, is to perform a hazard assessment. A hazard assessment will give you documented reasons why you felt working alone was or was not safe.

2)      Hazard Assessments with a Lone Worker in Mind

What should you be looking for in this assessment? First, consider the overall safety and security of the job. Is the work itself inherently dangerous? Is the location dangerous (for instance, a high-crime area)? Does the worker need to go into people’s homes? Is there heavy lifting to be done, that cannot be done alone or with mechanical means? Is the work position awkward, at heights, or near electrical equipment? Will your worker have difficulty getting in and out of their work location? Are there hazardous chemicals your employee needs to use or to which he/she can be exposed? 

3)      What Information Belongs in a Lone Worker Policy

The questions above, and possibly more, will help you make the call in your own mind. When you do, if it’s determined that the job is not safe or has the potential not to be safe, what should be done? The first step would be to see if it’s feasible to assign a second person, but let’s say it’s not. What should be in our plan to keep these workers safe?

4)      Communication

Communication is the first step. How are you keeping tabs on this worker? Technology today should make this simple given that at every location there must be a mode of communication which should be either wired or wireless like wireless walky talky, mobile phones, active check-in (via an app or other devices). You should create a procedure that requires them to take action at a regularly determined interval, such as voice determination at walky talky that allows you to know their status. This determination can be done when the site engineer/team leader/safety officer at site are in regular touch with the workers. This should also include a final call when they’ve finished their works at the location.

5)      Emergency Response

Employees need to know who they’re summoning in the event of an emergency, how they are summoning them, and they must be provided the means to do so. Are they using Walky talky or relying on a cell phone, what if the remote areas in which they are working have bad cell reception? How is that plan going to help somebody who has fallen unconscious? Devices should be in place that sends alerts if your lone worker has not checked in at their assigned interval.

6)      Rules

Given an assigned task and no supervision, a worker is most likely going to do whatever is necessary to complete their job. Unfortunately, some things are much more hazardous to do when alone, than when you are working with an another worker. Clear guidelines should be established for the employees so that they know exactly what they may or may not do when working alone. You want to be sure that your worker checks in about encountering anything that is unexpected and may put him/her in danger before proceeding. 

7)      Training

All of these rules mean nothing if your workers are unfamiliar with them. Once you’ve developed your lone worker policy, make sure you train your workers so that they are not taking an unnecessary risk during their workday. They should be trained on how to communicate, how to summon emergency help, and what they can and cannot do while alone. Most importantly, they should be trained to call and check anytime they are unsure. 

Worker safety is of utmost importance, but it can be difficult to monitor, especially in situations such as these. Supervisors can’t be expected to be at all places at all times. Workers need to know that whether alone or in a group, they cannot take risks with their own well-beings/families. They need to understand how something that goes wrong while alone can quickly turn from minor to tragic. They need to realize that with nobody else present, the responsibility to keep themselves safe, to follow the rules set out for their work, and to not take unnecessary risk, falls on their shoulders. 

If you can prevent workers from being alone, do it.

If you can’t, make sure you’ve done everything possible to keep your workers safe, secure, and alive.

THINK SAFETY WORK SAFELY