2 employees working at all times

TinaND · March 2003

I need help. We are a manufacturing company - we've always had the "Nonwritten" policy that 2 employees must be present and working at all times (no one can work alone). For safety reasons mostly - I've always been told that it's a law - I can't find documentation to back this up and I'm being called on it by an employee. Whether it's true or not - it's still a safety hazard and we'll continue with the policy..

Can anyone help me??????

Thanks

Balloonman · March 2003

Tina,
In my many years in safety I have wrestled with a similar issue. There has never been a law that says there must be two working at all times. You must evaluate a number of things, and decide what is best practice for your facility. I have dealt with it with supervisory checkins, required phone contact, etc.
In construction I will let a person be on a site alone, only if they have a radio. The ability to communicate is key.
That is my $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

jimlegal · March 2003

Federal Law, State Law or a combination of both? Is this an OSHA concern? Are you a union or non-union? My immediate reaction is whether it is mandated by "law" or not, a written policy should be put in place covering this issue. If it is mandated by law then you are attempting to comply, if it is not then you are going beyond what your statutory requirements are. In the policy I would outline the past "unwritten" practice over the many years that the company has followed the practice. If this issue were to ever be pursued by grievance, administrative or legal means "past practice" will be important. I would conduct some research to determine what law if any applied to the situation. Hope these thoughts help...

TinaND · March 2003

>Federal Law, State Law or a combination of both? Is this an OSHA
>concern? Are you a union or non-union? My immediate reaction is
>whether it is mandated by "law" or not, a written policy should be put
>in place covering this issue. If it is mandated by law then you are
>attempting to comply, if it is not then you are going beyond what your
>statutory requirements are. In the policy I would outline the past
>"unwritten" practice over the many years that the company has followed
>the practice. If this issue were to ever be pursued by grievance,
>administrative or legal means "past practice" will be important. I
>would conduct some research to determine what law if any applied to
>the situation. Hope these thoughts help...

Thanks! We are a non-union company - our main goal is safety for the employees - they work on welding, large shears, brake presses - etc where many things can happen. For the past 20+ years we have not allowed plant employees to work alone.. In fact at one time,if it was 2 employees of the opposite sex, we required 3 to work to avoid any sexual harassment claims - we've since deleted that rule. I was just wondering if anyone knew of an actual law that governed this rule of ours...

Don D · March 2003

I think balloonman is correct that there is no federal law addressing this. It makes sense though. As you are not union, tell the employee who 'called you on it' to comply or seek another place of employment. You are free to continue such a practice or establish a written policy requiring it.

meat_n_tators · March 2003

Since you mention "welding" as being something you do in your business, you may want to explore your obligations under a "Hot Work Permit Program".
Depending on other various elements within your business, you could have some compliance requirements from OSHA (PSM) or perhaps the EPA (RMP).
Some employers are also surprised to find that places employees may commonly enter, are in fact considered as 'confined spaces' by OSHA. In that event, there are some specific 'entry' rules that obligate the employer to have more than one person on the assignment.

CD PHR · March 2003

Agree with prior posts, there is no law that I am aware of.

True story:
My company does exactly the same type of work as yours, and we have a similar policy. We actually made an exception once for our janitor -- he would come in very early to vacuum the offices before we opened. He was here alone for about 2 hours at the beginning of each shift. One morning another employee arrived and discovered him clutching his chest and gasping for air. He was having a heart attack. Fortunately we were able to get him treatment quickly enough that he was ultimately okay. Every since that happened, we do not make exceptions anymore!

ray a · March 2003

I've worked in a manufacturing facility for nearly 25 years and have always had the unwritten rule "at least 2 employees at all times." So, when we have added a temporary 3rd shift, we always assigned at least 3 people so if someone called in sick there would still be 2 employees. If 2 called in sick, then the lone employee was to lock up and go home. Never a problem when we told people it was for their safety and benefit.

Crout · March 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-26-03 AT 01:22PM (CST)[/font][p]So long as you comply with the minimum safety standards required by any State or Federal law, your employee has no business questioning how you assign your workforce. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but I've been dealing with non-stop Union nonsense for about five straight days. Consider yourself lucky you are not in a Union environment.

2 employees working at all times

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