Lone Working Regulations to Safeguard Solo Employees (in the USA & UK)

Even though this guide specifically covers workplace safety laws in the United States (OSH Act) and the United Kingdom (HSW Act), no matter where your organization is based, it’s important to understand today’s general workplace safety standards to inform how you can best safeguard your lone workers.

In this article, we’ll examine employers’ general duties to employee safety, regulations that specifically aim to protect lone workers, and a variety of tools to ensure legal compliance and enhanced lone worker safety.

OSH Act of 1970: General Duty Clause

The United States Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 exists to assure healthful and safe working environments and working conditions for all workers. Its General Duty Clause (Section 5) states that each employer:

1. Shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;
2. Shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated under this Act.

OSHA: Employer Responsibilities

In addition to providing a safe workplace free of recognized hazards, OSHA states that other Employer Responsibilities include:

• Inspecting workplace conditions to ensure they satisfy OSHA standards;
• Providing employees with safe tools and equipment and properly maintaining those implements;
• Utilizing signs, posters, labels, and/or color codes to alert employees of potential hazards;
• Creating, updating, and disseminating standard operating procedures so that employees adhere to safety and health requirements; and
• Providing safety training that workers can understand.

Specific Lone Worker Regulations in the USA

So what about OSHA lone worker laws? Part 1915.84 of OSHA Regulations (Standards – 29 CFR) specifically pertains to health and safety standards for working alone in shipyard employment, though this regulation can be used as guidance for lone-working employees across all industries.

The regulation states that, any time employees are working alone (for example, in an isolated locations or in a confined spaces), the employer must:

• Account for each lone-working employee at regular intervals throughout each shift to ensure the employee’s safety and health; and
• Account for each lone-working employee at the end of the job assignment, or at the end of the shift, whichever occurs first.

HSW Act 1974: General Duties of Employers

Similar to the United States, the United Kingdom’s Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 aims to secure the health, safety, and welfare of all workers and protect non-workers against the health and safety risks that arise out of others’ work.

The HWS Act states that employers’ General Duties to their employees include:

• Ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of all employees, as far as is reasonably practicable;
• Providing and maintaining safe, risk-free workplaces and systems of work, as far as is reasonably practicable;
• Arranging for the safe, risk-free use, handling, storage, and transport of substances and articles;
• Providing the necessary training, instruction, information, and supervision to ensure the health and safety of all employees, as far as is reasonably practicable; and
• Maintaining places of work in safe conditions, free of risks to health, as far as is reasonably practicable.

Specific Lone Worker Laws in the UK

Though the United Kingdom does not have any laws explicitly pertaining to lone workers, the Health and Safety Executive has published a guide entitled, Protecting lone workers: How to manage the risks of working alone. This guide details how to keep lone workers healthy and safe.

According to the guide, the process of ensuring safe and healthy workplaces can be much different than that of other workers. Employers should make sure to:

• Assess specific areas of lone-working risk including the workplace itself (i.e. a rural or isolated location), physical violence (i.e. working with a high-risk client type), manual handling (i.e. operating dangerous machinery), the medical suitability of the individual to work alone (i.e. their medical history and susceptibility to sudden health issues such as heart attacks, seizures, and strokes);
• Understand lone workers’ requirements for training, levels of experience and skills, and how best to supervise and monitor them; and
• Establish systems to keep in contact with lone workers and respond to any incidents.

UK’s Advice for Monitoring and Keeping in Touch

The HSE also provides guidelines on how to keep in touch with employees as they work alone. It states that any monitoring system put in place should be well-embedded into an organization, understood by all, and may include:

• Supervisors periodically visiting and observing people working alone;
• Pre-agreed intervals of regular contact between the lone worker and employer, using phones, radios, email, etc.;
• Devices designed to raise the alarm in an emergency which can be operated manually or automatically;
• Implementing a robust system to ensure a lone worker has returned to their base or home once their work is completed.

Summary of Best Practices for Safeguarding Lone Workers

After reviewing the various laws and guidelines set forth by the United States and the United Kingdom, it’s clear that employers worldwide can, and should, employ the following general practices to keep their lone workers safe:

1. Establish a lone worker safety policy
2. Provide safe work, work systems, and workplaces that are free of hazards
3. Provide training, instructions, education, and other informational resources
4. Regularly seek to identify lone worker hazards and mitigate them 
5. Conduct frequent, detailed lone-working risk assessments
6. Monitor and keep in touch with employees as they work alone
7. Establish a regular safety check-in system 

Implementing a lone worker safety solution, such as SHEQSY, can help your organization uphold all of the lone worker safety best practices above, while complying with even the most strict lone worker legislation.

Tools for Complying with Lone Working Legislation

Working alone, without back-up support or supervision, presents higher-risk health and safety threats than when working in the presence of colleagues.

Luckily, there are various tools and practices that your organization can deploy to protect workers and comply with lone working laws and guidelines.

Real-Time Lone Worker Monitoring

Deploying a lone worker safety and management system, such as a lone worker app or a lone worker device, can help keep lone workers connected and safe 24/7, no matter where they are.

The ideal lone worker solution, at a minimum, should have:

• Location monitoring: Understanding of employees’ exact locations is invaluable in emergencies. Without their locations, how can assistance be dispatched to them?
• Automated periodic check-ins: Requiring employees to check-in regularly helps managers understand if they are safe and well. When employees miss check-ins, managers can follow their organizations’ safety protocols to determine if assistance is needed.
• Emergency panic alarm: In the event that something goes wrong, lone workers require a quick and easy way to raise a panic alarm, letting managers or other responsible parties know that they need immediate help.

SHEQSY is the leading lone worker safety solution that protects employees in real-time with duress alarms, periodic check-ins and overtime alerts, while keeping managers informed. Learn more.

Lone Worker Training

Ensuring that employees are properly trained to work alone is essential. Of course, training should be specific to the type of work, work environment, work-related hazards, and other relevant factors.

Some examples could be crisis intervention and de-escalation training for healthcare professionals working with patients, or machinery safety training for employees who operate hazardous equipment.

Solo employees should also complete extensive emergency response training.

Proactive Hazard Identification & Mitigation

Proactively identifying hazards and finding ways to mitigate them effectively is an important safety measure – and a team effort. According to OSHA, a leading cause of workplace incidents is the failure to identify hazards that are present or that could have been anticipated.

While managers should regularly carry out inspections, employees should also be encouraged and empowered to identify and report any hazards they spot. Implementing a simple hazard, incident, and near-miss reporting system for lone workers can help keep everyone on the same page.

Lone worker solutions often have a reporting feature that lets managers know when something is wrong. With the SHEQSY app, lone workers can report hazards quickly and easily with their smartphones, and include photo and video evidence.

Frequent Risk Assessments

Hazard identification and risk assessments go hand-in-hand. A risk assessment is the process of evaluating hazards and their risk levels and deciding how your organization can take reasonable, practicable steps to eliminate the hazards completely, or, at the very least, decrease their risk level.

Managers should complete risk assessments frequently, for example, every 3 months. They should take into account employees’ hazard reports and any other first-hand data they can collect.

While working, employees should also make sure to conduct their own dynamic risk assessments. This is the practice of continuously identifying hazards, analyzing their risks, mitigating the hazards, and then proceeding with work safely.

Practical Lone Worker Policy

The HSW Act of 1974 maintains that, “every employer [must] prepare . . . a written statement of his general policy with respect to the health and safety at work of his employees and the organisation”.

Creating a practical, go-to lone worker policy – one that includes defined roles and responsibilities, lone worker risks, safety processes and procedures, reporting procedures, emergency response plans, health and safety resources – can bring clarity and ease to communication and operations, therefore, keeping employees safer.

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