Authorized Employee

This term refers to a person who locks out or tags out machines or equipment in order to perform repair, inspection or maintenance.

Training requirements

In the above descriptions, "affected employee" and "authorized employee" are basically two distinct functions - requiring different types of training.

Therefore, the lockout/tagout standard requires three types of worker training:

a. An "authorized employee" needs to be trained to understand how to install and uninstall protective devices on a specific system.

b. An "affected employee" needs to be trained to understand the effect of the lockout/tagout devices and how to perform the necessary maintenance functions.

c. Other employees who may be involved in the work area also need to understand the basic function and importance of lockout/tagout devices. This is necessary to prevent untrained workers from removing lockout/tagout devices.

It is possible to train one person to act as an affected employee as well as an authorized employee.