What is stop work authority? Will this stop my production? Does this mean my project schedules are delayed hours? Days? Nope. In fact, stop work authority can save you, the employer, potentially 10’s or 100’s of hours of time and man hours spent handling the aftermath of a seriously injured employee. Think OSHA investigations and citations, work comp case management, rescheduling other personnel to handle the injured employees’ duties during recovery, the work stoppage due to arranging medical treatment for the injured at the job site, etc. Not to mention the fact an employee has been injured, perhaps seriously with lifelong disabilities.
How does stop work authority work? Simple, train your employees to stop work long enough to correct an unsafe condition they encounter on the job or while handling their tasks. For example, an employee is not wearing his safety glasses. That employee stops his/her work long enough to put on his/her safety glasses. How long did that take, say, 20 to 40 seconds? Pretty simple.