Page 53 - Occupational Health & Safety, November/December 2019

served as foundational steppingstones for how the organization acted. I learned early that, if you could get the right input, gain alignment and endorsement, and monitor for success, you usually got the end result you desired.
Here are three work principles we ad- opted that support Stop Work Authority:
■ Any person (employee, contractor, visitor) can and must confront unsafe be- haviors and/or conditions. No one is autho- rized to disregard such a warning.
■ No one is expected to perform any function or accept any direction that they believe is unsafe to themselves or others or creates an unsafe situation, regardless of who directs such an action (regardless of title or level of authority).
■ Anyone who feels that a work situ- ation is unsafe will shut down that process and work with appropriate team members to create a safe condition.
When you have a desire to build a strong culture that supports safety, every- one feels responsible for safety and pursues it daily. Employees go beyond the call of duty to identify unsafe conditions and be- haviors and intervene to stop them. The positive yield is that there is just no activity so urgent or essential that the value for safe- ty or health is compromised. Employees have the right and responsibility to refuse tasks or activities that pose an undue risk to themselves, co-workers, or the environ- ment. Stop work actions take precedence over all other priorities and procedures.
Stop Work Authority Procedure
and Incident Management
To support SWA policy, a procedure should be considered that outlines how you want such work to flow. Here is a common ap- proach to consider:
1. Stop. When a worker identifies a per- ceived unsafe condition or behavioral ac- tion or sees a concern that poses a danger to a person(s), equipment, or the environ- ment, a “stop work” intervention should be immediately initiated to “stop the work” with the person(s) potentially at risk.
2. Notify. Notify affected personnel and supervision of the stop work action. If nec- essary, stop all work activities that are asso- ciated with the work area in question. Make the area(s) as safe as possible by removing personnel and stabilizing the situation.
3. Investigate. Affected personnel will review and discuss the situation and come to
an agreement on the stop work action. If all parties agree that the condition or act is safe to proceed without additional modifications, (e.g., the stop work initiator was unaware of specific information or circumstances), the SWA is complete at this point and no fur- ther steps are needed. When opinions differ regarding the validity of the stop work issue, the investigation group should be expanded with the proper experts. If it is determined and agreed the SWA is valid, a documented process such as a Stop Work Issuance Form should be considered to ensure all affected and authorized parties are aware and part of the correction steps.
4. Correct. The condition(s) or act(s) that posed a threat or imminent danger to a person(s), equipment, or the environ- ment must be corrected before restarting work. Modifications and repairs to the af- fected area(s) will be made according to the corrections outlined in the Stop Work Issuance Form.
5. Resume. When the affected area(s) has been inspected by qualified persons and all safety issues have been appropriately re- solved, the area(s) will be reopened for work by personnel with restart authority. All af- fected employees and contractors will be notified of what corrective actions were im-
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