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Energy
Control Program
Training and Retraining
The employer is required to provide effective
training for all employees covered by the lockout/tagout standard and
ensure that all employees understand the purpose, function, and restrictions
of the energy control program. Authorized employees must possess the knowledge
and skills necessary for the safe application, use, and removal of energy
controls. This training also must make employees aware that disregarding
or violating the energy control program could endanger their own lives
or the lives of coworkers.
Employee Training Requirements
 There
are three types of employees which must receive training: authorized,
affected, and other. The amount and type of training that each employee
receives is based upon the relationship of that employee's job to the
machine or equipment being locked or tagged out and upon the degree of
knowledge relevant to hazardous energy that the employee must possess.
In addition, employers are required to certify
that effective training and retraining has been provided to all employees
covered by the standard. The certification must contain each employee's
name and dates of training.
- Authorized employee training. The
lockout/tagout standard requires that before the machine or equipment
is turned off, the authorized employee must be knowledgeable of the
following:
- Recognition of applicable hazardous energy sources.
- Details about the type and magnitude of the hazardous energy sources present in the work area.
- The methods and means necessary to isolate and control hazardous energy sources.
- Affected and other employee training. Affected
employees and all other employees are required to recognize when energy
control procedures are being used, understand the purpose of the procedure,
and understand the critical importance of not attempting to start up
or use equipment that has been locked out or tagged out.
Additional Training Requirements for the Use of
Tagout Devices
When the employer uses tagout as opposed to lockout,
employees must receive additional training to enhance the safety of the
tagout program and to ensure employee protection.
To address the limitations of tags, additional
training must be conducted for employees who work with tagout or who work
in areas in which tagout is used. This additional training must address
the following:
- Tags are essentially warning devices affixed
to energy-isolating devices and do not provide the physical restraint
of a lock.
- Tags must be legible and understandable by
all employees.
- Tags and their means of attachment must be
made of materials that will withstand the environmental conditions encountered
in the workplace.
- The presence of tags may create a false sense
of security. They are only one part of an overall energy control program.
- Tags must be securely attached to the energy
control devices so that they cannot be detached accidentally during
use.
- When a tag is attached to an isolating means,
it is not to be removed except by the person who applied it, and it
is never to be bypassed, ignored, or otherwise defeated.
Retraining
Retraining must be provided whenever there is
a change in job assignments; a change in machines, equipment, or processes
that presents a new hazard; or a change in energy control procedures.
Additional retraining must be conducted whenever a periodic inspection
reveals, or whenever the employer has reason to believe, that there are
deviations from or inadequacies in the employees' knowledge or use of
the energy control procedure.
Retraining could be triggered by other events
as well. For example, an employee working with an energy control procedure
might be injured in the course of his/her duties, or a "near miss" might
occur in which no one is injured but a deviation from established energy
control procedures occurred. Both of these cases would trigger the need
for retraining.
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