Work Safe Oath Element Spotlight: Bypassing Safety Controls

What are safety controls? They are the processes, practices, systems, policies and tools designed to reduce risks and potential loss of life or injury, and to protect others and the environment. Safety controls are put in place due to the potential for an incident to occur or, unfortunately, because on has already occurred.

What safety controls are implemented within your job task? Maybe it is a safety kill switch; maybe it is a guard on a rotating equipment; maybe it is a safety system designed to prevent over/under pressure or a level controller to prevent loss of contamination. Safety controls are not always a device but may also be a procedure or policy, physical barrier or even an area that has been cordoned off. We all have some type of safety controls in place in our daily task, and there are some instances where we may need to bypass them for us to either: start up, test or conduct maintenance. Before we bypass any safety control, we need to remember our Work Safe Oath. 

Obtain authorization before overriding or disabling safety controls. 

• I understand and use safety critical equipment and procedures which apply to my task.
• I obtain authorization before:
  • disabling or overriding safety equipment,
  • deviating from procedures,
  • crossing a barrier.