As an employer, it’s not unlikely that at least some of your employees are considered to be lone workers. In fact, it’s thought that 15% of US employees are lone workers.

If you do employ lone workers, then it’s crucial that you know OSHA’s rules about their employment. Falling short of legal requirements can result in large fines and damage to a company’s reputation – not to mention risks and harm that employees shouldn’t have to face.

So, what obligations are you supposed to meet? In this article, we’ll explore essential info for employers and managers of lone workers, including OSHA’s requirements, other key details to know, and how the term “lone worker” is defined.

An overview of OSHA’s lone worker rules

The most important thing to be aware of regarding OSHA regulations for lone workers is that there are not many rules set out for lone workers overall.

Some industries, such as shipbuilding, construction, and firefighting, do have clear rules about lone working. But many other industries don’t have regulations specifically about lone working. Lone workers in those industries are mainly protected by OSHA’s general duty clause, which says that every employer:

“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.”

It’s crucial to remember that OSHA can and does use the general duty clause to impose fines on companies that don’t protect lone workers. And there are some overall OSHA rules about lone working – we’ll cover those below. So, employers in industries without specific lone working regulations definitely still need to take steps to ensure the safety of their lone workers.

Furthermore, employers should know that states can also enact lone worker laws. You’ll definitely want to check any relevant state legislation that could apply to your lone workers.

What is a lone worker?

Because OSHA regulations about lone workers are mostly industry-specific, there isn’t really an overall legal definition of what a lone worker is.

A 2024 blog post by OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) said: “NIOSH and OSHA do not currently have a standard definition of lone work.” That post chose to describe lone work as “a potentially hazardous working condition that occurs when an individual cannot be seen or heard by another worker and where assistance is not readily available.”

So, if your workers are in an industry without specific OSHA lone worker rules, you can usually consider them to be lone workers if other employees can’t see, hear, or help them as they work. However, if you’re in doubt about who counts as a lone worker in your organization, it’s best to consult legal advice to make sure you’re covered.

For shipyard workers, there is a partial definition set out in 29 CFR 1915.84. The regulation says that “whenever an employee is working alone, such as in a confined space or isolated location,” certain rules will apply. Some online sources will describe this wording as OSHA’s overall definition of lone work, but actually it is from a subpart that is specifically for “general working conditions in shipyard employment.”

When lone working is not allowed

There are some cases where OSHA doesn’t allow lone working at all. These mostly involve situations where an employee is working in some kind of dangerous environment. In these cases, there typically needs to be another employee outside the dangerous environment who’s in constant contact with them and can help if needed. And that means the person inside the dangerous environment wouldn’t be considered a lone worker by the definition above.

For example, there are rules about working in particular types of confined spaces (29 CFR 1910.146). Among these rules is one that says there always needs to be an “attendant” outside the confined space who is in contact with the person inside and can rescue them.

Similarly, 29 CFR 1910.134 says that workers who are in an “immediately dangerous to life or health” (IDLH) atmosphere must have “visual, voice, or signal line communication” with a worker who’s not in that atmosphere. The idea here is that there is always someone who can come in and rescue the person in the IDLH atmosphere.

We’ll talk about some industry-specific points relating to this later, but it’s worth knowing that OSHA wants to ensure that employees don’t have to enter dangerous areas alone when they’re not in touch with someone who can assist right away.

What the General Duty Clause means for lone workers

It’s clear that most OSHA regulations about lone work are focused on physical labor in dangerous environments. But many other careers also involve lone work. For example, retail employees, home healthcare workers, and realtors may all perform lone work that is hazardous in other ways.

One main danger that’s not prominent in OSHA industry-specific lone working regulations is the threat posed by other people. Yet crimes including assault and robbery are a serious concern for lone workers in the above professions and many others. Home healthcare workers are especially vulnerable because they are entering strangers’ homes, which might also be hazardous due to factors like aggressive pets.

The General Duty Clause says that employers need to ensure that employees can work without facing “recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

So, if a particular hazard is unfortunately common in any given industry, OSHA will expect that employers take steps to protect workers from it.

An example: workplace violence

Let’s take workplace violence as an example of how the General Duty Clause can protect lone workers.

It’s commonly known that some workers, such as convenience store cashiers who work alone at night, may face a higher risk of violence at work. And indeed, an OSHA directive on workplace violence identifies four industries that it says involve a higher risk of violence:

Correctional facilities
Healthcare and social services
Late-night retail, with “solo work” as another risk factor
Taxi driving with “working alone” as another risk factor.

Under the General Duty Clause, an employer who knows that this hazard exists needs to take steps to protect workers. And OSHA has helped them do so by creating recommendations such as its Recommendations for Workplace Violence Prevention Programs in Late-Night Retail Establishments.

Moreover, OSHA’s resource on workplace violence states:

“An employer that has experienced acts of workplace violence, or becomes aware of threats, intimidation, or other indicators showing that the potential for violence in the workplace exists, would be on notice of the risk of workplace violence and should implement a workplace violence prevention program combined with engineering controls, administrative controls, and training.”

Long story short – employers are expected to take steps to combat hazards that they should know their lone workers are likely to face.

Industry-specific regulations

Some industries that have specific OSHA regulations regarding lone working are:

Shipyards
Mining
Emergency services
Power
Hazardous waste.

If you’re concerned about industry-specific OSHA regulations for your organization, it’s best to consult an expert, such as a lawyer. However, here’s a quick rundown of some relevant rules – and you’ll see they tend to follow similar themes. In most of the examples below, lone working is prohibited in specific situations.

29 CFR 1915.84 says that employers need to check on shipyard lone workers at “regular intervals” during their job and when their lone working task or workday ends. Situations where a lone worker gets hurt but no-one finds out until far too late are sadly common, so this is a smart measure to prevent that type of tragedy.
In electric power, there are rules (29 CFR 1926.960 and 29 CFR 1910.269) saying that “at least two employees shall be present” when workers are working with particular types of energized parts or power lines.
In mining, 30 CFR 56.18020, 30 CFR 57.18020 and 30 CFR 57.18025 have rules similar to those we’ve already seen – an employee can’t work alone in a dangerous area unless someone else can see or hear them.
In construction, 29 CFR 1926.1204 says that workers in confined spaces need to have an “attendant” outside who can help them.
29 CFR 1926.65 and 29 CFR 1910.120, regulations for hazardous materials and waste operations and clean-ups, say that “operations in hazardous areas shall be performed using the buddy system in groups of two or more.”
And when firefighters are at work inside a structure, two or more workers need to go into the dangerous environment together and “remain in visual or voice contact with one another at all times,” according to 29 CFR 1910.134.

What employers can do to protect their employees

As you can see, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to protecting lone workers. If your employees are at work in hazardous environments, lone working may not be permitted at all for some tasks.

But if you’re a business owner or manager in other industries like retail, healthcare, agriculture, and real estate, and your workers are allowed to work alone, then you’ll still need to take steps to protect them from crime and workplace injury.

Many of these steps will need to be tailored to your lone workers’ specific situations. For example, procedures involving not keeping large amounts of money accessible in a cash register, and signs explaining that cashiers can’t access money, are often considered to be helpful for convenience stores and gas stations.

But one approach that many lone workers can benefit from is the use of a lone worker alarm. This is a simple, small device worn as a necklace or on a belt. And it has a crucial function – allowing lone workers to call for help if they’re facing an emergency, even if they’re not near a cell phone or panic button, and even if they’re not well enough to dial a phone.

The lone worker alarm does this through several handy features. The most important one is an SOS button that just needs to be pressed and held for a few seconds to call for help. That can make all the difference in a crisis, when seconds matter and there isn’t time to find a phone and dial it. It’s also useful for lone workers who are unwell and losing consciousness – they may be able to press a button even if they can’t think through a more complicated process.

Another key feature is fall detection, which acts as a backup if the worker can’t press the SOS button. Fall detection relies on three sensors and an algorithm, which is constantly assessing whether the worker has fallen to the ground. If the device decides it has sensed a fall, it will make a call for help independently, even if the worker is unresponsive.

With SureSafe’s Lone Worker Solution, you also get GPS tracking, which is helpful for day-to-day work as well as emergencies. If a worker has gone missing or if their device has sent out an alert, managers can use the GPS to find them fast and look at the location history to see where they were, which can give clues about the problem.

Protect your lone workers with SureSafe

There are too many tragic stories available about lone workers who experienced emergencies during their workday when no-one was around to notice. Sometimes, family or co-workers don’t realize something is wrong until hours later, when it’s too late to help.

In fact, we haven’t yet mentioned another danger that lone workers face. In addition to work-related accidents and crime, lone workers may simply experience health emergencies that are unrelated to work – like unexpected allergic reactions, for example. In these situations, they can also face serious danger if they can’t get help fast.

SureSafe’s lone worker solution is here to assist workers in all these scenarios – crime, workplace injury, and medical emergencies. Our lone worker device combines features that allow the worker to raise an alarm about their wellbeing with features that let helpers locate them fast. That’s a huge benefit for worker safety and morale, and it can be a crucial part of a lone worker safety plan that lets employers meet their obligation to protect workers from hazards under the General Duty Clause.

How can our lone worker devices help protect you and your employees? To learn more or chat with us, just fill out our contact form, call us at 888 540 7193, or email us at [email protected]. You can also use our live chat or request a call back.