The Dangerous Consequences Small Businesses Face in Not Following Lockout/Tagout

Jun 16, 2023

Welcome to Thomas Insights — every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what's happening in industry. Sign up here to get the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox.

While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) Recordkeeping Rule exempts employers with 10 or fewer employees from recording non-serious workplace injuries and illnesses, all employers of any size are required to comply with all applicable OSHA regulations in order to keep their employees safe.

"All applicable OSHA regulations" refers to either federal OSHA regulations or "State Plan" OSHA regulations. Currently, there are 22 states that are approved by OSHA to administer their own worker safety and health plans. These state plans apply to private sector companies, which include small businesses, as well as state and local governments.

Small business owners who are one-person operations (who do not have employees) are not required by OSHA to adhere to their regulations for employers. However, these small business owners should still follow the regulations, where applicable, to keep themselves safe while they are working.

For example, wearing respiratory protection when working with hazardous materials or toxic chemicals, using fall protection when working at heights, or wearing hearing protection when working in loud environments are not solely for businesses that have employees. These protective measures are beneficial for one-person operations as well. The potential for a workplace accident to occur is always present, in any kind of workplace, and following OSHA's regulations helps minimize that potential.

In particular, OSHA estimates that compliance with Lockout/Tagout — commonly referred to by its acronym, LOTO — saves about 120 lives per year and prevents about 50,000 injuries each year. Consequently, non-compliance with this regulation continues to make OSHA's top 10 list of most violated regulations for nearly every year that OSHA has been publishing the list.

OSHA's federal and state Lockout/Tagout regulations detail protective measures for employers to implement that prevent accidental start-up of machines and equipment during servicing and maintenance, either from human error or residual energy.

To prevent accidental start-up, the energy sources of those machines and equipment, which are considered "hazardous," are "locked" with an actual lock and "tagged" with an actual tag, after the machines or equipment are powered off. OSHA defines "hazardous energy" as any source of energy that can be hazardous to employees, including but not limited to electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, and thermal sources of energy. These protective measures should be utilized by small business owners who are one-person operations as well.

Small business owners may ask, "What can go wrong?" Consider the crushing accident that occurred at the Barcardi Bottling Corp. facility in Jacksonville, Florida, in August of 2012. Barcardi Bottling Corp. is obviously not a small business, however, many small businesses have some of the exact same processes and operations that large corporations have, such as automated palletizing. A temporary employee at the Bacardi facility was cleaning an automated palletizing machine on his first day of work. The machine was accidentally started by another employee who didn't see the temporary employee, and the temporary employee was crushed to death by the machine.

Along with crushing accidents, not utilizing LOTO protective measures can result in burn accidents from thermal energy that can cause severe injuries and fatalities. A lack of LOTO controls for electrical energy can cause severe shock injuries and electrocution fatalities. Uncontrolled mechanical energy can result in amputations that can also be fatal. The list of "What can go wrong?" is infinite. Utilizing LOTO protective measures can save many lives and prevent numerous injuries.

Small businesses and large corporations alike always consider time and cost when deciding on how to best implement LOTO and other protective measures. Some may wonder "Where do I begin?"

There are actually no-cost options for small businesses to get started with implementing protective measures, whether they are a one-person operation or one that has employees. Both OSHA's federal and state plan offices offer no-cost assistance in identifying potential and actual hazardous conditions in workplaces. They also provide recommendations on how to address them. Local safety consultants are another option for assistance. Many offer low-cost rates for small businesses.

A common myth about accidents in the workplace is that "it will never happen to me." Accidents are called accidents for that reason; they are unexpected and most of the time they are unintentional. Accidents do happen, however, even in small businesses. Therefore, small business owners should always ensure their operations and processes are safe by adopting protective measures like LOTO.

It may come at a cost and take time, but working safely ensures that customers will get their products and services when they need them. Most importantly, working safely ensures that business owners and employees will go home safely at the end of their workdays.

Image Credit: Mr.PK / Shutterstock.com