Glossary · Safe work, maintenance and competence
Affected employee
Under OSHA’s lockout/tagout standard, an affected employee is a person whose work may be affected by equipment undergoing energy control, because they operate or use the equipment or work in the area where servicing or maintenance is being performed under lockout or tagout.
- Machine safety
- USA
- Maintenance
In one sentence
An affected employee operates or works near equipment under lockout/tagout but does not apply the locks, and must be told and trained.
Example
Line operators on a bottling line are affected employees when maintenance locks out the filler: they are notified before the lockout, must not try to restart it and are told when it is released.
How it applies
- Machine safety: Affected employees are not allowed to apply or remove locks, but their actions can defeat the protection, for example by restarting a machine. They must recognize a lockout/tagout and understand why it must not be disturbed.
- USA: 29 CFR 1910.147 requires that affected employees receive instruction in the purpose and use of the energy control procedure and are notified before a lockout is applied and after it is removed.
- Technical documentation: Energy control procedures should name who the affected employees are for each machine and how they are notified, in addition to the steps for the authorized employee.
- Evidence: Training records per role show that the instruction took place.
Affected employee vs. authorized employee
The authorized employee performs the lockout and the servicing. The affected employee only uses or works near the equipment. A person becomes an authorized employee when their duties include servicing covered by the standard.